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From his office at Cambridge University and beyond, Stephen Hawking has plunged his mind into the depths of black holes, radiating through the endless cosmos and tracing back billions of years to witness the first breath of life. time. He considered creation as a scientist and called to discuss the greatest puzzles of creation: where do we come from? What is our goal? Are we alone? – he answered as a scientist, often to the chagrin of religious critics.
In Stephen Hawking's latest book "Brief Answers to Big Questions," published on Tuesday (October 16th) by Bantam Books, the professor begins a series of 10 intergalactic essays in addressing the oldest and most religious issue in the world. : Is there a God?
Hawking's answer – compiled from previous interviews, essays and speeches with the help of his family, colleagues and Steven Hawking's field – should not surprise the readers who followed his work, uh, religiously.
"I think the universe was created spontaneously from scratch, according to the laws of science," wrote Hawking, who died in March. "If you accept, like me, that the laws of nature are fixed, it will not take long to ask: what role does God have?"
In life, Hawking was a strong supporter of the Big Bang. theory – the idea that the universe began by suddenly exploding from an ultradense singularity smaller than an atom. From this point emerged all the matter, energy and empty space that the universe would contain, and all this raw material evolved into the cosmos that we perceive today by respecting a strict set of scientific laws. The combined laws of gravitation, relativity, quantum physics and some other rules could explain everything that has happened or will happen in our known universe.
"If you want, you can say The laws are the work of God, but it's more a definition of God than a proof of its existence," wrote Hawking. [19659008] The universe operating on a scientifically-guided autopilot, the only role of a powerful deity could establish the initial conditions of the universe for these laws to take shape – a divine creator who provoked the Big Bang, then went back to admire his work.
"Did God create the quantum laws that allowed the Big Bang to occur?" Hawking wrote. "I have no desire to offend a believer, but I think science has a more convincing explanation than a divine creator."
Hawking's explanation begins with quantum mechanics, which explains the behavior of subatomic particles. In quantum studies, it is common to see subatomic particles such as protons and electrons, emerge from nowhere, stay for a while and then disappear in a completely different place. Hawking wrote that since the universe was once the size of a subatomic particle, it is likely that it behaved the same way during the Big Bang.
"The universe itself, in all its immensity and complexity, would simply have existed without violating the known laws of nature," he wrote.
This still does not explain the possibility that God created this proton-sized singularity, and then reversed the quantum mechanics switch that allowed him to appear. But Hawking says science has an explanation here too. To illustrate his point, he emphasizes the physics of black holes – collapsed stars so dense that nothing, including light, can escape their attraction.
Black holes, like the universe before the Big Bang, condense into a singularity. In this ultra-compacted mbad point, gravity is so strong that it distorts time, light, and space. In other words, in the depths of a black hole, time does not exist.
Because the universe also began as a singularity, time itself could not exist before the Big Bang. Hawking's answer to what happened before the Big Bang is: "There was no time until the Big Bang."
"We have finally found something that has no cause, because there is no time for a cause to exist," wrote Hawking. "For me, it means that there is no possibility of creation, because there is no time for a creator to exist. "
This argument will not convince theistic believers, but it has not was never Hawking's intention. "As a scientist pbadionate about understanding the cosmos, Hawking sought to" know the spirit of God "by learning all that he could about the self-sufficient universe that While his vision of the universe may make a divine creator and the laws of nature inconsistent, he nevertheless leaves a wide space for faith, hope, miracle and, above all, gratitude.
"We have this life to appreciate the grand design of Hawking concludes the first chapter of his latest book," e I am extremely grateful to him. "
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