Stephen Hawking Archives

April 2, 2025April 1, 2025

Science Without God Is Nil

Is science without God possible? John C. Lennox is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College. In his book “God and Stephen Hawking,” Lennox says, “The more I understand science, the more I believe in God, because of my wonder at the breadth, sophistication, and integrity of His creation.”

Interestingly, science’s growth in the 16th and 17th centuries happened because men like Galileo, Kepler, and Newton believed the universe was built with an understandable, rational, and intelligent design. They didn’t think of science without God, believing the universe was understandable because it was created with purpose, design, and a discernible order.

An atheist must believe that everything that happened in the past and continues today is pure accident. Famous atheists, such as Stephen Hawking and Francis Crick, expressed this belief. Hawking maintained that humans are “mere collections of fundamental particles of nature.” Francis Crick had what he called an “Astonishing Hypothesis.” That is, “You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”

Hawking and Crick possessed great talents in their chosen fields but seemed to lack any reason to trust their minds. Hawking’s “fundamental particles” and Crick’s “associated molecules” cannot be trusted to have any purpose or truth, so how can they contribute to the overall understanding of the cosmos? Science without God becomes an empty shell. We are talking about believing in a creator God who designed the cosmos and us with purpose.

The Psalmist said it well: “I praise you, God, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well… How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them.” (Psalms 139:14 and 17).

March 24, 2025March 23, 2025

The Inconsistency of Atheists

In his book God and Stephen Hawking 2ND EDITION, Oxford mathematics professor John C. Lennox points out the inconsistency of atheists:

“[Stephen] Hawking imagines that the potential existence of other life forms in the universe undermines the traditional religious conviction that we are living in a unique, God-created planet. I find it faintly amusing that atheists often argue for the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence beyond earth. They are only too eager to denounce the possibility that there exists a vast, intelligent being ‘out there,’ namely God, who has left his fingerprints all over his creation. Hawking’s fusillade will not shake the foundations of an intelligent faith that is based on the cumulative evidence of science, history, the biblical narrative, and personal experience.”

An atheist must believe in naturalism, the faith that science can explain everything, and has a monopoly on truth. The fact is that in spite of quantum mechanics, cosmology, and physics, there are a vast number of things that science cannot and never will be able to explain. Why there is something instead of nothing, why morality exists, and how time and space came into existence are examples. There also are many things that science has no answer for, such as why there is color and beauty in animals and plants, sometimes putting the life form at risk while serving no purpose but aesthetic value.

The inconsistency of atheists affects individuals and the culture as a whole in a way that is 100% negative. Who takes care of people with Alzheimer’s? Who addresses the needs of those who are mentally challenged or paralyzed? As the father of a son who was blind, mentally challenged, and had muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and schizophrenia, I found that the caregivers helping us for 50 years were deeply religious people who were living out their religious convictions.

Peter Singer, Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, has the only atheist solution. He advocates euthanizing all of these cases. He says there would be enormous financial gain by eliminating those in prison, mental hospitals, and care facilities. The question is whether anyone, even atheists, would want to live in that kind of world.

October 29, 2024October 28, 2024

What Nothing Is

It may seem strange that we would have an article about “nothing,” but this is a serious topic. The dictionary defines nothing as “not any material or immaterial thing” (Oxford English Dictionary). Cosmologists like Stephen Hawking won’t accept that definition. Do we really know what nothing is?

Hawking argues that “nothing” can result from cyclic processes – quantum fluctuations in the very early universe. Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss explained his understanding of what nothing is this way: “For surely “nothing” is every bit as physical as “something,” especially if it is to be defined as “the absence of something.” The cosmologists’ speculative attempts to redefine nothing is an attempt to eliminate God from the process of creation.

If I have a bill for $10.00 and $10.00 in my pocket, is my net worth “nothing”? If matter and antimatter combine, they destroy each other. Does that produce “nothing”? The answer is clear. They produce energy, which is not nothing. This is not a scientific discussion because you can’t observe “nothing,” and you can’t devise an experiment to test “nothing.” Hawking and Krauss are scientists, not philosophers, but they are attempting a philosophical argument to eliminate God from the creation process.

There is strong evidence of a beginning to time, space, and matter/energy. It was not eternal and was not created by “nothing.” We can talk about dimensions beyond the ones we live in and the ones scientists can do their experiments in, but ultimately, God comes to the creation process from a dimension beyond the three we know. String theory suggests eleven spatial dimensions, but that is not good science; it is only speculative guesses about the nature of reality.

“In the beginning, God created the heaven (space, time, and matter/energy) and the earth.” That statement in Genesis 1:1 gives purpose, direction, and realism to all of us. Let us not argue about what nothing is.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Quotes and data from John C. Lennox’s book God and Stephen Hawking – Whose Design Is It Anyway? pages 30-33.

October 18, 2024October 17, 2024

Modern Atheism Has Lost Its Momentum

Evolution News & Science Today published an article by Denyse O’Leary titled “How the New Atheism Fizzled.” The point is that modern atheism has lost its momentum.

A book titled The Four Horsemen (Random House Penguin 2007) presented the arguments against faith by Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins. Hitchens and Dennett are deceased, and no one has taken their place. Antony Flew and Ayaan Hirsi Ali were atheists who could pick up the slack. Ali was a Muslim turned atheist, but she became a disciple of Christ, and Flew wrote a book titled There is a God (HarperOne 2008).

Modern atheism has lost its momentum as more evidence for design has become available. The challenges include the fine-tuning of the universe and simple things like the fact that the existence of beauty is not part of survival. We now see books and articles about why there is something instead of nothing.

To add to the challenges to modern atheism, evidence shows the growth of suicide among atheists. Atheist Staks Rosch, writing in the Huffington Post (December 8, 2017), noted that depression leading to suicide is a significant problem in the atheist community. The fact that atheism offers no purpose for existence while faith does is a factor in how modern atheism has lost its momentum.

One of the leading proponents of modern atheism has been the work of the late brilliant scientist Stephen Hawking. However, believers with the academic credentials to address Hawking’s complaints against faith have responded. For example, Dr. John C. Lennox of the University of Oxford directly addressed Hawking in 2011 in the book God and Stephen Hawking – Whose Design Is It Anyway? Atheists have been unable to respond to Lennox’s material. Books by other scholars have addressed the claims of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, and Dennett.

Even though modern atheism has lost its momentum, there have always been and will always be those who reject the existence of God. The bottom line is you don’t have to put your brain in “park” to be a believer. Jesus challenged the people of His day to look at the evidence. Those of us who believe in God and the Bible should follow His example.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: “How the New Atheism Fizzled” by Denyse O’Leary in the September 30, 2024, issue of Evolution News & Science Today

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023

All These Things Will Be Dissolved

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night when the heavens will vanish with a great rushing sound, and the elements shall be scorched up and dissolved and the earth also and the works that are upon it will be laid bare – seeing that all these things shall be dissolved what devout and dedicated lives you should live.” – 2 Peter 3:10-11

As we study the creation and learn more about the mechanisms that guide natural functions, we realize that biblical statements of God’s methods are scientifically factual. The theologian may simply say that God does it and leave it at that. Those of us with a science background are interested to see how God designed a system to accomplish His purposes.

The statement of 2 Peter 3:10-11 is theological, but the description matches the latest scientific understanding of the nature of matter/energy. Scientific American magazine published an interesting article titled “Disappearing Act.” The article goes back to Stephen Hawking’s research, which showed that event horizons around black holes can emit “Hawking radiation,” which causes the black holes to evaporate.

Researchers in quantum mechanics have shown how the “Schwinger effect” can apply this concept of matter evaporating to any form of matter, not just black holes. If their calculations are correct, it means that anything with mass, which is everything in the creation, is designed so that it will eventually evaporate. Since God created time, the timing of this evaporation is not open to science.

Amazingly, the comment in 2 Peter that all these things will be dissolved cannot be seen as science fiction but as a picture of God’s creative power and wisdom of design. Indeed, the more we know of the creation, the more we comprehend the nature of the Creator.

References: “Disappearing Act” in Scientific American magazine, September 2023, pages 9-10, and “Gravitational Pair Production and Black Hole Evaporation” in Physical Review Letters

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019

Stephen Hawking’s Search

Stephen Hawking’s search ended one year ago today. He was perhaps the most famous scientist in the world until his death. Hawking was a British theoretical physicist and cosmologist. In 1963, when he was 21 years old, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The doctors gave him two years to live. He far exceeded the life expectancy of an ALS patient, even though the disease gradually stole his ability to move.

By the end of his life, Hawking spoke using a computerized voice that he controlled with his cheek muscles using a slow process of selecting words and letters. In spite of his disability, he gave lectures and wrote best-selling books. His motto was “There are no boundaries.” Although he had previously written that God was not needed to explain the creation, in 2014 he openly declared himself to be an atheist.

Hawking married Jane Wilde in 1965. Over the years his illness and his celebrity put a strain on the marriage. Also, Jane Hawking was a Christian and Stephen was an unbeliever, which added to their differences. In 1990 Stephen left Jane for one of his caregivers. In 1995 he divorced Jane and married the caregiver, Elaine Mason. Stephen divorced Elaine in 2006. Hawking then resumed a closer relationship with Jane and his children and grandchildren. Jane wrote a book about their renewed relationship, and it was made into a movie The Theory of Everything in 2014. Eddie Redmayne played Stephen Hawking in the film, and the role won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Speaking of the “Theory of Everything,” that is what Stephen Hawking’s search was about. He and other scientists have spent years trying to discover that theory. On January 8, 2018, a new episode of the series “Favorite Places” premiered on CuriosityStream.com. In the show, Stephen Hawking was shown traveling through space to visit some of his favorite places including Venus, the Sun, and the star Proxima Centauri. Narrating the adventure with his computer-generated voice, he told about his search for the “Theory of Everything.”

“I have been searching for something my whole life. Something to explain the world that is by turns kind and cruel, beautiful and confusing. A single all-encompassing idea that can explain the nature of reality—where it all came from and why we exist at all—the Theory of Everything.”

Perhaps in Stephen Hawking’s search, he was overlooking the real answer to his questions. Is it possible that he left out the key to that answer—God. Perhaps his ex-wife Jane had the answer all along in her Christian faith. He acknowledged that the universe is amazingly fine-tuned for life. He attempted to explain that by the idea that this is only one of an almost infinite number of universes with different parameters, and we just happen to live in the one universe with the right parameters and laws to allow life to exist.

Instead of an accidentally fine-tuned universe, what if God created a perfect universe. What if God is love and He created us so that He could love us and so that we would love and serve Him. What if our failure to do so explains why the world is “by turns kind and cruel.” That would explain “where we came from and why we exist at all.” It would also explain “the nature of reality.” That is where Stephen Hawking’s search was leading for his “whole life.”

Sadly, Stephen Hawking never found what he was searching for. We think that the “Theory of Everything” is written in the Bible ready for each of us to discover for ourselves.

November 25, 2018November 19, 2018

Modern Moral Belief

A recent Barna research study shows that two-thirds of American adults now believe that morality is relative to circumstances. This attitude says that what is right depends on the situation. It also says that what is right for me may not be right for you and what is right for you may not be right for me. This modern moral belief conflicts with absolute moral standards.

We have often said that if you are an atheist, you have no case to make for ANY moral standards. If there is no God and no existence beyond this life on Earth, why shouldn’t I do anything that I think will bring me pleasure? It appears that if this survey is correct, a majority of Americans support that view.

Our society continues to approve any form of sexuality that one wishes to engage in. We have pointed out that experts in ethics and morality like Peter Singer at Princeton, are suggesting that our society should approve the euthanizing of humans who cannot contribute to society and who put a drain on our nation financially. This would include the mentally challenged, the mentally ill, and people who have physical limitations due to paralysis or other physical impairment. It would have included killing people like the late Stephen Hawking or other notables with high intelligence but severe disabilities.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of showing people that God exists and that the Bible is His word. A person who accepts those facts realizes that we are responsible for how we live. Modern moral belief can’t stand up against absolute moral standards from God and His word. Having absolute moral standards from God makes all the difference in the way we must live. How we live makes all the difference in what kind of world our children and grandchildren will live in.
–John N. Clayton © 2018
Data: OneNewsNow

March 22, 2018March 2, 2019

Virtual Faith

Virtual Faith - Cat with Mirror
Atheist virtual faith reminds me of virtual images. I am an old physics teacher. One of the fun discussions that I used to have with my students was when we got into optics and began talking about virtual and real images. Real images are actually formed by light rays. When you take a convex lens or a concave mirror you can project an image of a candle onto a screen. The image is inverted, but it is there. You can block sections of it with your hand, and you can enlarge or reduce the image by changing the distance from the object to the projecting lens or mirror.

The other type of image is a virtual image, which is an illusion. When you look into a plane mirror, you see an image of yourself. The image is not real. It is not actually formed by the light rays, and it cannot be projected. Watching an animal see itself in a plane mirror is always interesting because the animal can be fooled by the realistic virtual image. We all know that magicians can fool us with virtual images as well.

When atheists want to get around questions concerning the existence of God, they frequently bring the word “virtual” into their discussion. Stephen Hawking in his book A Brief History of Time evaded the logical consequences of the second law of thermodynamics by inventing something he called “virtual time.” Lawrence Krauss in his book A Universe from Nothing claims that empty space is actually “a boiling, bubbling brew of virtual particles that are popping in and out of existence on a time scale so short that you cannot see them.” This new definition of “nothing” is based on virtual particles.

Like the virtual image in a plane mirror, all of this is unreal! It is an unscientific proposal because it cannot be falsified or scientifically tested in any way. It is invented purely to justify the rejection of God as the creator. Krauss is fond of saying that there is no need for an intelligent being to will anything into existence because the means for this was already there and available. If you want to invent a religion that believes in unreal particles popping into existence, you are certainly free to do so. That gives the atheist a virtual faith. The problem is that he or she has to believe that from the “boiling bubbling brew” everything necessary for stable matter to exist came about by chance.

We have a booklet “Evidence for Design In the Universe” available on our doesgodexist.org website or from us on request. It contains a list of 47 physical design features that must be present for a planet like ours to exist. We would claim that all of this makes our faith real, and the rejection of God’s existence virtual faith.
–John N. Clayton © 2018

March 21, 2018March 2, 2019

Grand Design and Stephen Hawking

The Grand Design
In our March 15 article on this site, we mentioned the death of Stephen Hawking. We noted some of the amazing things that Hawking accomplished. We have received some mail about Hawking and his role as an atheist. How much Hawking’s battle with health issues affected his view of God is hard to answer, but his resistance to believing in God is undeniable as shown in his book The Grand Design.

In his otherwise excellent book A Brief History of Time (Bantam Books, 1988), Hawking did a masterful job of explaining the second law of thermodynamics. He even intimated that the second law was supportive of the existence of God. That was something Hawking didn’t want to do, so at the end of the book he invented something he called “virtual time.” He couldn’t define virtual time, and it is not testable and therefore is not science. By accepting virtual time, Hawking was able to deny that there was a beginning and that the beginning had to be caused by an entity outside of space/time.

Hawking’s first wife was a believer in God and expressed concern about the integrity of the virtual time argument. Many have suggested that Hawking’s belief system was all that the last chapter of the book was trying to defend.

In his 2010 book The Grand Design, Hawking declared that God is not needed to explain the existence of the universe. In an interview, he said, “There is no heaven or afterlife… that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” That was a statement of faith based on the imaginary concept of virtual time. Virtual means unreal. A grand design based on virtual time is not real.

Hawking was an outstanding thinker in cosmology, and he overcame enormous challenges to continue to live a productive life far beyond what was expected. It is sad that he allowed bias to shadow his thinking in areas outside of his specialty. A friend of mine with a Ph.D. in physics says, “My Ph.D. in every-day life really stands for post hole digger.” Like Richard Dawkins and other popular atheists, Hawking was incredibly ignorant in spiritual matters, but a genius in his own field of expertise. Let us admire and praise his professional accomplishments, but not attach much significance to his religious opinions. Tomorrow we will examine “virtual faith.”
–John N. Clayton © 2018

March 15, 2018September 7, 2018

Stephen Hawking’s Death

Stephen Hawking's Death
On the morning of March 14, news media carried the news of Stephen Hawking’s death. His family announced, “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.”

Hawking was a brilliant physicist and cosmologist and probably the best-known living scientist. He wrote the book A Brief History of Time which was published in 1988. That book holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for being on the Sunday Times (London) bestseller list for an amazing 237 weeks. The book has sold ten-million copies and has been translated into 40 languages. Along with Roger Penrose, Hawking devised the theory that the universe began with a singularity in what has come to be known as the “Big Bang.” In his 2010 book The Grand Design he declared that God is not needed to explain the existence of the universe. In an interview, he said, “There is no heaven or afterlife… that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Stephen Hawking lived a remarkable life for a person with a form of ALS, a motor neuron disease. He was diagnosed at age 21, and the doctors gave him two years to live. He survived until age 76 but spent most of those years in a wheelchair unable to move. He could only talk with the aid of a computerized voice.

We are saddened to know that Hawking was never able to accept the Christian faith of his first wife. In the announcement of Stephen Hawking’s death, his three children said, “We will miss him forever.”

We have recently published two postings about Stephen Hawking, and we encourage you to read them by clicking here and here.
–Roland Earnst © 2018