Hawking’s Grand Design, or God’s? by by Colonel Bob Pappas, USMC, Retired

Hawking’s Grand Design, or God’s?
by Colonel Bob Pappas, USMC, Retired
A number of weeks ago I wrote a piece in which I used parallel structure of good works by Muslims and Mormons. It was not well considered and in the process the comparison offended some Mormon readers, for that I apologize. Evidently Muslim readers appreciated the comparison in view of the fact that no complaints came from that quarter. Moving on.
Stephen Hawking, a notable theoretical physicist of long standing with accolades enough to paper a room. He is brilliant in the fields of astronomy, physics, and mathematics and has written numerous articles and a number of books on those subjects. He is the recipient of important awards including in 2009, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. In short he is an intellectual heavy weight, one of those “smartest person in the room” people.
Hawking was born in 1942. His parents moved from London to avoid wartime danger and later he was educated in Great Britain’s best schools. Hawking has had the opportunity to observe much during his lifetime and has great influence in some circles.
In his recent book, “The Grand Design,” Mr. Hawking stretched credulity beyond his intellect’s vaunted reach. Unlike Einstein and other brilliant physicists who have consistently recognized and acknowledged God or other a “superior intelligence” as responsible for creation of the universe, Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow argue in favor of a spontaneous event as the source of creation that was guided by the laws of physics. If there is a God Hawking claims, “it is the laws of science.”
In a recent interview with British television Hawking stated:
“The question is: is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can’t understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second. If you like, you can call the laws of science ‘God’, but it wouldn’t be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions.”
If all physical matter can be explained by physics or mathematics it inevitably leads to such questions such as: “Did Einstein invent E=MC^2 or did that theorem exist from the beginning and Einstein discovered it?” I believe the latter. “Assuming that the universe began with a ‘big bang’ what specific laws of physics made it happen?” “How did those laws come to be?” “Who devised them?” Incidentally, one may agree with the “big bang” without contradicting the Biblical account.
Hawking and other scientists theorize ad nauseam about the cosmic genesis; despite his lifelong work on it, Einstein failed to formulate his long sought after “theory of everything;” and, atheists rail against God; yet to their dismay, God’s handiwork stretches unflinching across the universe.
Most scientists describe the universe as finite, elliptical, rapidly expanding and some 15 billion light years across. Expanding into what? For scientists like Hawking the concept of infinite must be overwhelming because one cannot quantify infinity but only acknowledge it.
Imagine standing at the edge of the universe with all of it to ones back, peering out into the darkness. Would there be an outer limit beyond the darkness? If there is a limit what would it be? While standing there suppose one sees a speck of light, would that be another universe? Suppose for a moment that there are an infinite number of universes, each similar to our own like there are galaxies in our own universe. Would the same laws apply? Would God be God of all universes or only of ours? Would that limit God? Even if the latter were so which is not suggested here, God’s “finiteness” would nonetheless confound the most brilliant minds. They cannot explain it and I have faith that God did it all, so any belittling God by even “brilliant” minds does nothing to dissuade me from my understanding of God of the Holy Bible.
God, in Hawking’s world is mathematics and physics, but how did those come to be? One thing is certain, it wasn’t the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Newton, Einstein or Hawking who invented them. Physics, mathematics and science preexisted their discovery and refinement by brilliant men or women. From whence did brilliant people acquire their minds?
In Hawking’s world everything “just happened,” incident to the laws of physics, math, and biology to name a few, but Hawking’s assertion is but theory given that he has no more proof than do other theories. So, let’s set Hawking’s aside for the moment and replace it with the written “theory,” the Holy Bible for which there is mounting scientific “proof.” Let’s replace Hawking’s with a “theory” that asserts there is an infinite God who knows every flower in the field, and every humming bird, eagle or sparrow; He knows each and every insect and animal, in fact God accounts for every atom, proton, electron, neutron, quark and ever other single sub-atomic particle in existence. That same God, the God of the Bible is a living, personal God who loves his physical and human creation enough that He gave His only begotten son to show us how to live, to die as a sacrifice for all of humanity, and to defeat death and Satan that humanity might live eternally with Him. The God whom I have come to know, knows each perso
n who has ever lived in minute detail even before they were conceived; and “I Am” is His name.
Anyone with normal powers of observation is able to observe both the finite and the infinite, but one should humble oneself enough to acknowledge that mankind can only discover and put to use the knowledge gained from observation. Succinctly put, humankind does not make natural law and can only discover it.
I am persuaded that those natural “laws” are God’s laws; and, that same God is infinite in every conceivable and inconceivable way. Humanity is arrogant enough to enumerate them as Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. But there may be dimensions and/or concepts that are both inconceivable and indescribable and right in front of us, but we cannot see them.
Hawking’s definitive statement: “it wouldn’t be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions” assumes that God is not personal and that if one could qualify on one’s merit to “meet God” one would be automatically entitled to “ask questions.” What Hawking evidently does not understand or appreciate is that meeting God will indeed happen, and as much as one wants, tries or believes that one is in control, the meeting will not be on one’s own terms, rather, the meeting will be on God’s.
We’ll see how it unfolds as we pass through life which incidentally is at its longest but a speck on the continuum of eternity.
Semper Fidelis

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Good write up. I truly belileve a person can’t explain the universe without God.
Hawking’s argument appears to be even more illogical when he says the existence of gravity means the creation of the universe was inevitable. But how did gravity exist in the first place? Who put it there? And what was the creative force behind its birth?
Similarly, when Hawking argues, in support of his theory of spontaneous creation, that it was only necessary for ‘the blue touch paper’ to be lit to ‘set the universe going’, the question must be: where did this blue touch paper come from? And who lit it, if not God?
I would ask Prof. Hawking where life came from. You don’t get animate matter from inanimate matter. No way. no how. Where did the genetic material to create an elephant come from? A one-celled amoeba floating around a swamp?
I can’t look at the universe without seeing evidence of God.

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67