Hawking on "The Grand Design", 2010

After pointing out that Einstein’s dream to discover the grand design of the universe was unrealistic, Hawkings and Mlodinov say that a few key developments (Mtheory, COBE satellite’s data, WMAP satellite’s data) enabled physicists to achieve that dream. They conclude that God is not necessary because the universe is self-sufficient. The classical objections against God existence were known already to Greeks, Romans and Jews in Alexandria and had been rigorously reformulated already in the 13th century, Relevant quotes of St. Thomas Aquinus, Chesterton and S.L. Jaki are brought forward. It is the strongest mark of the divinity of man that he talks of this world a “strange world” though he has seen no other.

Chesterton on "The Whole Evolutionary Cosmos"

“For those who really think, there is always something really unthinkable about the whole evolutionary cosmos, as they [the Evolutionists] conceive it; because it is something coming out of nothing; an ever-increasing flood of water pouring out of an empty jug… In a word, the world does not explain itself, and cannot do so merely by continuing to expand itself. But anyhow, it is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything”. (Emphasis added).

Hawking and the Universe

First, the limits of Science, Philosophy and Theology, and the proper methodologies of each field of knowledge must he recalled in order to speak meaningfully of material reality, living or non-living. The existence of infinite universes as the theoretical reason why Einstein’s cosmological constant is so close to zero is impossible to verify for those other universes. Eddington, Dicke, Carter, Barrow, Wheeler and Hawking himself have underlined the need for most precise values of the different cosmic parameters (Anthropic Principle). Finality is a metaphysical problem when we speak of the Universe and to deny it leaves us with an absurd. We should admit that there is no scientific answer as yet for any of the important questions posed by biology. “The Emperor’s New Mind” of artificial intelligence is a fraud, as pointed out by Penrose. In “The Great Design”, their authors present the multiplicity of undetectable universes (than appear out of “nothing”) as the explanation of the fact that the one we detect is suitable for life. No Science can predict what I will do next minute. Neither can it predict the free activity of the Creator who holds the Universe in existence.

Hawking on "A Brief History of Time", 1988

The successive editions (1988, 1996, 1998, 2005) of “A Brief History of Time” are briefly commented upon. Some big questions such as “Where did me come from?”, “Why is the universe what it is?”, brought forward but left unanswered by Professor Hawing, are pointed out. A “complete unified theory of physics” is within the reach today’s theoreticians, according to him.

The Post-Renaissance Revolution: The New Science

A new approach to thinking about nature was developed in post-Renaissance Europe embracing an ever increasing body of theoretical and technical knowledge. It was accepted that there was and there is evolution both in “inert” and in living mater. This approach implied interactions ruled by “laws” not externally imposed. It applied to Astronomy, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and established the basis for the industrial revolution and changed the approach to Medicine, Economy and the transmission of Culture. At earlier periods the human experience of the world was interpreted in terms of mythological and religious models. Then in terms of scientific (formal) geometrical models and finally in models based upon scientific causality (first the mechanical model and then the dual model encompassing Relativity and Quantum Mechanics). The current success of astrophysics can only be expressed in the context of the “cosmological principle”: the universe is homogeneous and isotropic. We can extrapolate our laboratory experiment under the same physical laws to infer the part and predict the future. But science has a proper subject and its own limits.

Hawking on "Gödel and the End of Physics"

A brief summary of Professor Hawing is lecture is given at the Center of Mathematical Science, Cambridge University, July 20, 2002, entitled “Gödel and the end of physics”. An overview of the triumphs of mathematical physics from Newton to t’Hoff is followed by the final statement that it may not be possible to formulate a theory of the universe in a finite number of statements, which is reminiscent of Gödel’s theorem.

The True Pioneers of Modern Physics

Lord Rayleigh comments on crude views about nature at the 54th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Many first rate scientists, true pioneers of physics, chemistry, astronomy etc. have opposed materialism and philosophical relativism. Both religion and science can claim objectivity if there is a world independent of human thought. Planck and Einstein affirm it unmistakably. Historically there have been some outstanding scientists leaning to agnosticism or materialism, like Mach, Poincaré and Bohr, but they are rather exceptions to the general rule.

Science: Western or What?

Modern science is characterized by an impressive capability to describe in quantitative terms an enormous variety of natural facts. If the world had not been made rationally, scientific knowledge would be impossible. P. Duhem in his “Le systeme du monde…” Vol.II, summarizes the role of the Medieval Catholic Church in destroying the pagan doctrine of the “Great Year” which implies an eternal universe. Unlike in the pagan Greek cosmos, all bodies, heavenly and terrestrial, were now on the same footing. This made eventually possible to think that the slow fall of the Moon in his orbit and the fall of an apple on earth could be governed by the same gravitational law.