The Glade 4.0

By John Roach

Stephen Hawking, the famous British physicist, called the notion of heaven a "fairy story" in an interview with The Guardian newspaper published today.

The physicist, 69, who was diagnosed with A.L.S. at age 21, made the heaven comment in response to a question about his fears of death.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he told the newspaper.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven of afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people who are afraid of the dark."

The comments are seen as going beyond those in his 2010 book, "The Grand Design," which stirred up passions with the observation that science can explain the universe's origin without invoking God.

Hawking has far outlived most people who have A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, producing important cosmological research and writing books. His "A Brief History of Time," published in 1988, has sold more than 9 million copies.

The Guardian interview is the latest the scientist has given to news media in recent weeks. It is published the day before he is scheduled to address the question "Why are we here?" at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London.

In the talk, according to The Guardian, he will argue that the tiny fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged.

"Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in," he said.

Interesting. I could have sworn reading years ago that he was religious.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

He seems to be pushing the Atheist thing lately, it usually makes the news when he does. He's also been pushing that aliens will likely come to get us so we should colonize space.

Ditto. He seems to swing wildly depending on his mood.

Interesting. I could have sworn reading years ago that he was religious.

Larry King: Do you believe in God?
Stephen Hawking: Yes, if by God is meant the embodiment of the law of the universe.

Yeah his theories would have been easily understood back in 35 AD. What is it about parables that throw off the smarty pants folk?

Parables are fine, as long as folks understand that they are parables. It's when people latch on to them as literal and factual truths that you have problems.

I definatly agree, and I feel the same way about scientific theories.

As for Steven, I'll say the same thing as I tell everyone else. If you're right you'll never know. You won't even have the opportunity to say "I told you so." If you're wrong, you'll find out someday. Of course my Bible says by then it's too late to do anything about it. If he's comfortable with that that's his business.

Developing technology to fight a war with an as-of-yet-unknown interstellar species would provide an enormous benefit to mankind even if such a threat should never emerge.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

Laws are how things work theory is why we think it works this way. Theories don't become law and laws don't start out as theories.

Law is "its 95 degrees and 80% humidity out" a theory would be - its this way because it is summer.