Stephen Hawking says afterlife is a fairytale
Posted by Nova Spirit
on May 16, 2011 at 4:18pm in Science & Spirituality
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110516/us_yblog_thelooko...
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently explained his belief that there is no God and that humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth.
Guardian writer Ian Sample asked Hawking if he feared death in a story published yesterday. This was his response:
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. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
Hawking's 1988 book "A Brief History of Time" sold 9 million copies, and in it Hawking referenced God metaphorically as the force that could fully explain the creation of the universe.
But in 2010, Hawking told Diane Sawyer that "science will win" in a battle with religion "because it works."
"What could define God [is a conception of divinity] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."
Hawking's latest book, "The Grand Design," challenged Isaac Newton's theory that the solar system could not have been created without God. "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 ... set the Universe going," he writes.
Hawking was diagnosed with the degenerative Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 21. He lost his power of speech and for decades has talked through an electronic speech synthesizer. The device has allowed him to continue his research and attain a top Cambridge research post, which was previously held by Newton. His most famous theory explains how black holes emit radiation, according to The Guardian.
So if everyone is destined to power-down like computers at the end of their lives, what should humans do to lend meaning to their experience?
"We should seek the greatest value of our action," Hawking told the paper.
(Hawking in China in 2006: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)
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Permalink Reply by Turukai on May 16, 2011 at 4:59pm
then we must have some pretty AMAZING imaginations to be experiencing collectively what we are experiencing!!!
God bless Steven Hawkings and his amazing mind.!
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Permalink Reply by Raibeart Y Gath ddu on May 16, 2011 at 7:44pm
Perhaps Turu... we also have things such as collective consciousness because of our connective energies.. our lifeforces intertwined at other levels. Imaginations to be sure... part of our individual consciousness which in turn feeds into our collective energies. I hope that made sense... it sounded right in my head. lol.
Message Permalink Reply by Nigel Bruce Thomas on May 16, 2011 at 5:10pm
Good piece. Thanks.
Hawkings does not and never would dispute the 2nd Law of Entropy - energy once created can never be destroyed. It can only be recreated into another form. The question is, especially when it comes to the energy that is individual human existence, where does that energy go after death...into what form is it recreated?
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Permalink Reply by Raibeart Y Gath ddu on May 16, 2011 at 7:37pm
Very smart & intuitive man..... Nigel, I totally am with you on the energy concept, and I think I would like to point out that this concept of energy converting from one form to another, and therefore our lifeforce as energy converting at our deaths to another form does not presuppose the existence of any God or supreme being, just energy. I have believed for many years now that we just don't stop when we die, our lifeforce if you will, continues on in one fashion or another. I also believe that religion has created a belief system in such things as God, Heaven, etc as a means for us to accept the reality of death in the physical sense, because of our fears of things unknown to us at this existence level. Just this old Cat's opinion...
Message Permalink Reply by Turukai on May 16, 2011 at 8:20pm
As so if we made in Gods image so to speak, and the kingdom of heaven is within, and the God self is your being, then perhaps we are energetic beings and when the physical form is done and dusted we return to the collective energy or life force that is represented as the term GOD!!
Hmmmm wonderful pondering thoughts ! :)
Permalink Reply by Tamoharadasa 1 day ago
Delete I like what Turukai says here.
The term "Energy" says nothing, however, it is a term used generally when you have no specific descriptive details. This "energy" is the source of all livings beings, and so is of course a living being Themself, not an amorphous quality-less state. The undifferentiated Brahmana, which is a light of the spiritual sky, is but the blank slate upon which the Holy Plays are written, so to speak, if you follow me.
We here in a conditioned state are much much less than God. In our spiritual state, we are like unto Krishna, but never are we the source of all that be, we are partakers in the play, not the creators of the play. We have eternal identity in blissful love, not uniform sameness of nirvana, which is actually imagination, as there is no such thing as nothing.
Permalink Reply by Raibeart Y Gath ddu 1 day ago
Thank-you for your 'comment'. You have basically said that I said nothing at all. Point taken, noted & summarily filed.
Message Permalink Reply by Tamoharadasa 1 day ago
Delete I would argue you have said we are not matter but spirit, that is the main thing.The rest is but the details, my friend. I am arguing for a deeper explanation after you have liberated us from matter by this transcendental knowledge.
Permalink Reply by Tamoharadasa 1 day ago
Hawking is an imbecile.
Permalink Reply by Clearwater Banchee 1 day ago
I wish I could "like" this comment, like on facebook!
Reply by anki Interesting. i have read articles from the book of dr saab called we are our brain, there in he states a similar thesis where all we are is created by the brain and is in the brain. everything even our personality is according to him and many other scientists a fact.
but
what i dont see any evidence on is if we are only brain how can we have a sense of self.. individuality. if we are exactly like a computer a very advanced bio computer like robots.. we would not be able to feel love for the self or to have a feeling about individuality. on this fact has already been reasearch and it has been found that wihtout soul u would not be consiouss.
as to the after life if there is a soul and it is energetic than it can not die it can though take another shape and continue its existance.now what that is we cant know from where we are.
Reply by Tamoharadasa 1 day ago
- Dear Anki ; Nice! And perfectly in accord with the teachings of the holy Vedas, also
- Reply by anki 1 day ago
- thankyou! :)
- Tdasa replied ;
- What would you call a person who does not know his identity, does not know where he comes from or where he is going, does not know the purpose or meaning of life, denies the existence of a Source, but states opinions on spirituality like an expert or authority? ;
A cheating liar, lower than an imbecile, who is at least honest.
PS nice flow of talks, but a little weighted by over-admiratrion of mere mundane speculative reasoning or mathematical capacity versus self realized eternal knowledge. That tells us something about some of our writer friends here; they are worshippers of jnana, what we in bhakti call jnana-yogis; they seek to free themselves , to perceive Truth, etc by accumulating knowledge.
But your brain has limited memory and discrimination capacities, it is tiny, limited computor physically. Unless you transcend the human-limited brain and touch the Supersoul, you will remain like so many zeros with no 1 in front; so it is zero.
Stephen has no idea, so he is vey vey tiny like a spark compared to the nuclear bomb of spiritual realization. He has limited himself to the lowest category, as he wants God gone so no one competes with him, sir Atheist. Even a five year old in some places knows that they are spirit. So he knows less than a five year old.
Krsna consciousness you think is a religion, you think is hindusim, you think. But your thinking is limited therefore wrong and always will be. You have to transcend mundane matter to ever be truly alive. You will never reach the limits of mundane knowledge. This pursuit of mundane knowledge and false ego keeps you trapped in Maya's game. you are not these bodies at all, but riders on the storm.
When we use our computors, we send a search out for info, and in due course, it fetches and returns the info to us. We are not active in the process. Similarly, when we send out a request for info to our brains, sometimes it takes a while for the machine to process. We are not actively involved in the processing. So it is the same. The computor is a machine we use, the human body is also a machine which we temporarily inhabit and we use. We are riders in the human body. When we realize the Rider's s capital "S" Self-identity, we will have all knowledge spontaneously, as spirit IS pure knowledge, eternal and blissful.
Is it so difficult Stephen cannot get it? Of course, he is crippled of form in this life, therefore limited in his normal social interactions unfortunately, and this may have twisted his vision due to the effects of ilness. It must be very hard to take, embittering.
Be real.
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