Believers slam Nobel Prize winning physicist for saying that God did not create the universe
Believers slam Nobel Prize winning physicist for saying that God did not create the universe
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In his new book The Grand Design, Britain's most famous scientist says that given the existence of gravity, "the universe can and will create itself from nothing," according to an excerpt.
"Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," he wrote.
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper [fuse] and set the universe going."
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But the head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, said that "physics on its own will not settle the question of why there is something rather than nothing."
He added, "Belief in God is not about plugging a gap in explaining how one thing relates to another within the universe.
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It is the belief that there is an intelligent, living agent on whose activity everything ultimately depends for its existence."
Williams' comments were supported by leaders from across the religious spectrum in Britain. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, "Science is about explanation.
Religion is about interpretation. The Bible simply isn't interested in how the Universe came into being."
The Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, added, "I would totally endorse what the Chief Rabbi said so eloquently about the relationship between religion and science."
Ibrahim Mogra, an imam and committee chairman at the Muslim Council of Britain, was also quoted saying, "If we look at the Universe and all that has been created, it indicates that somebody has been here to bring it into existence. That somebody is the almighty conqueror."
Hawking was also accused of missing the point by colleagues at the University of Cambridge in England.
Fraser Watts, an Anglican priest and Cambridge expert in the history of science, said that it's not the existence
of the universe that proves the existence of God.
Hawking's book as the title suggests is an attempt to answer the 'Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything', he wrote, quoting Douglas Adams' cult science fiction romp, The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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His answer is M-theory, which, he says, posits 11 space-time dimensions, vibrating strings, ... point particles, two-dimensional membranes, three-dimensional blobs and other objects that are more difficult to picture and occupy even more dimensions of space."
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