Daily Mail, 2nd September 2010
The universe was not created by God, scientist Stephen Hawking has said in his new book.
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| Professor Stephen Hawking believes the laws of physics were behind the creation of the universe, not God |
Professor Hawking believes the laws of physics were behind the Big Bang instead, in a challenge to traditional religious beliefs.
In The Grand Design, extracts of which were printed today, Prof Hawking concludes: 'Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.
'Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.
'It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.'
The book, co-written by American physicist Leonard Mlodinow and published on September 9, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have created out of chaos.
He cites the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun.
'That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.'
Prof Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe, writing in A Brief History Of Time in 1988: 'If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we should know the mind of God.'
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| An image from Hubble that shows the heart of the Milky Way taken in near infra-red light. Prof Hawking says that our existence is the result of physics, not a Supreme Being |
He also leaves open the possibility of life on other planets and entire new universes - the so-called 'multiverse'.
theoretical; physics known as M-theory, a form of string theory, could be the 'holy grail' that will explain everything in the known universe.
Physicists have long sought after a universal theory that unites quantum theory, matter at the sub-atomic level, with gravity which explains how objects interact.
He says: 'M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. The fact that we human beings - who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature - have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a triumph'.
Professor Hawking has been quite outspoken in recent months over a number of issues.
In April documentary series, he argued that it is 'perfectly rational' to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.
And in an extraordinary series of assertions, he said Earth might be at risk from what he imagines to be 'massive ships' which could try to colonise our planet and plunder our resources.
Professor Hawking said: 'We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.
'I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.
'Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.'
It would be 'too risky' to attempt to make contact with alien races, he concluded.
'If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.'
And last month Professor Hawking has warned that unless the human race colonises space within two centuries it will disappear forever.
He said that our only chance for long-term survival is to move away from Earth and begin to inhabit far-flung planets.
In an interview with the website Big Think, Professor Hawking said he was an optimist but the next few hundred years had to be negotiated carefully if humans were to survive.
HAWKING ON GOD
- A Brief History of Time, 1988: If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we should know the mind of God.'
- The Grand Design, 2010: It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going
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