Well Im glad Hawking said this. We can finally put this debate to rest now. The creation books will no longer be published. The debates on tv will go away. The origins threads on CP can all be closed. We finally have our answer to the biggest question in history.
I really like Old Hawkings a lot. He's a pretty depressing example of an atheist though. In fact, most of the New Atheists are just a bunch of wheezy liberal secularists not even deserving of the moniker "humanist." Hawkings believes that humanity's only chance for survival is to colonize space. Not very optimistic.
Please clarify: why are the new atheists not "deserving" of the moniker "humanist"? How does one become deserving of this label? Perhaps you find them depressing in large part because they do not share your own sense of purpose? This seems to come up a lot in your posts, and it strikes me as unnecessarily axiomatic.
__________________
Dealing with Everything from Dead Sea Scrolls to Red C Trolls
Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
Well Im glad Hawking said this. We can finally put this debate to rest now. The creation books will no longer be published. The debates on tv will go away. The origins threads on CP can all be closed. We finally have our answer to the biggest question in history.
Ps. Dont forget to avoid contact with aliens.
I wish.
More than likely, creationists will do what they often do: in this case, I suspect that they will latch onto the tantalizing title of his new book and proclaim that Hawkings has become a proponent of intelligent DESIGN.
__________________
Dealing with Everything from Dead Sea Scrolls to Red C Trolls
Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
More than likely, creationists will do what they often do: in this case, I suspect that they will latch onto the tantalizing title of his new book and proclaim that Hawkings has become a proponent of intelligent DESIGN.
I think he's just trying to appease to ET so that they might spare him when they attack!
From a science point of view, how can anyone ever expect an organism that was created within a system to ever be able to develop the intelligence capacity to unravel the secrets of the system that it was created in? The complexity of the universe will always be greater than the abilities of the human mind in my opinion.
__________________
"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to FlamesAddiction For This Useful Post:
More than likely, creationists will do what they often do: in this case, I suspect that they will latch onto the tantalizing title of his new book and proclaim that Hawkings has become a proponent of intelligent DESIGN.
From a science point of view, how can anyone ever expect an organism that was created within a system to ever be able to develop the intelligence capacity to unravel the secrets of the system that it was created in? The complexity of the universe will always be greater than the abilities of the human mind in my opinion.
That's my thoughts as well. You articulated it better then I could. Can the toy out think the toy maker? The smartest ant in the world will never be able to comprehend the vastness that we as humans comprehend.
Most religions that I am familiar with maintain that God is an infinite and eternal being, so for the religious among us I would imagine that an idea of things without beginning or end is not as foreign as one may think.
Absolutely, for some this idea is easier to fathom than for others. However it is commonly held that the universe was created by a god, that this god then exists outside this realm.
Quote:
If God is eternal, why is it impossible that matter could be as well? Not all Christian religions teach that God created the universe from nothingness. There are some who believe that he rearranged "matter unorganized."
As with religion there are many schools of thought amongst the faith on how things were created, suffice to say creation mythology is common amongst all religions in some form or another.
Quote:
Depending on what one's ideas of God and creation are, religion does not necessarily exclude science. It is entirely possible for God as an almighty being to be the impetus, while science as we understand it could explain his methods.
Exactly, its really not like religion and science haven't co-existed, albeit sometimes very uncomfortably and in modern times with many Islamic nations and biblical literalist's.
I think simply what Hawking is stating is we have no need to invoke God in order to understand our universe as we understand it today, but like others have mentioned here its not as if an all mighty couldn't have intended it this way.
But that certainly makes a case against the personal God of various faiths here on earth.
That's my thoughts as well. You articulated it better then I could. Can the toy out think the toy maker? The smartest ant in the world will never be able to comprehend the vastness that we as humans comprehend.
Its quite sad to hear such beliefs after how much we've learned since we lived in caves. The amount of sheer knowledge we have gathered in the last 10,000 years and the rate at which its speeding up now seemingly every decade is quite staggering.
To consider it impossible for us to learn the processes which have brought us our existence is outright silly and even though its a vastly difficult question with such incredible complexity does not mean we cannot eventually find the answers.
Hey I noticed that some people are talking about religion and colonizing space in a thread.
I have a theory about that.....never mind
Atheists and agnostics will go to Mars to get some chocolate bars. Scientologists and the WBC will go to Jupiter because they're so much stupider. (or something like that)
Do you think, though, that it would be difficult to colonize space since the dead mormons own so many of the planets already? I hope they each get just one when they die...
The Following User Says Thank You to Day Tripper For This Useful Post:
I think simply what Hawking is stating is we have no need to invoke God in order to understand our universe as we understand it today, but like others have mentioned here its not as if an all mighty couldn't have intended it this way.
If we have no need to invoke God, we also have no cause to exclude him based on the evidence. It's just not that kind of evidence.
