Stephen Hawking and the existence of God

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Hello All,

 

Stephen Hawking, in his book A Brief History of Time, mentioned that

as a result of assuming the no boundary condition in his

mathematical model for space and time, the universe would have

neither a beginning nor an end. As a further consequence, then: " The

idea that space and time may form a closed surface without boundary

also has profound implications for the role of God in the affairs of

the universe. ...So long as the universe had a beginning, we could

suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely

self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither

beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a

creator? "

 

Hawking's thesis that God would exist only if the universe had a

beginning or an end was itself obviously flawed. This precluded the

idea that God could be an entity which was beginningless and

endless; that God could be beyond dimensionality, unlimited,

indivisible, causeless, continuous, and has been and always will be.

In fact all the results derived from the no boundary condition

merely implied the existense of a state which was beyond all the

gunas, Nirguna; this is itself a quality of an overarching divine

being, the Devi. 'No boundary' would mean just that: no dimensions,

beyond measurement and unlimited; all qualities of the Devi.

 

Other qualities of the Devi which are implicit in the no boundary

condition are: Akula, beyond kula, measurable dimensionality;

Shashvati, ever present, continuous; Niranjana, unstained by any

limitation; Nitya, eternal; Niskala, indivisible, complete; and

Nishkarana, causeless, cause of all causes.

 

C.

 

 

Extract from A Brief History of Time

(Bantam Edition)

 

Page148

Further predictions of the no boundary condition are currently being

worked out. A particularly interesting problem is the size of the

small departures from uniform density in the early universe that

caused the formation first of the galaxies, then of stars, and

finally of us. The uncertainty principle implies that the early

universe cannot have been completely uniform because there must have

been some uncertainties or fluctuations in the positions and

velocities of the particles. Using the no boundary condition, we

find that the universe must in fact have started off with just the

minimum possible nonuniformity allowed by the uncertainty principle.

The universe would have then undergone a period of rapid expansion,

as in the inflationary models. During this period, the initial

nonuniformities would have been amplified until they were big enough

to explain the origin of the structures we observe around us. In an

expanding universe in which the density of matter varied slightly

from place to place, gravity would have caused the denser regions to

slow down their expansion and start contracting. This would lead to

the formation of galaxies, stars, and eventually even insignificant

creatures like ourselves. Thus all the complicated structures that

we see in the universe might be explained by the no boundary

condition for the universe together with the uncertainty principle

of quantum mechanics.

 

The idea that space and time may form a closed surface without

boundary also has profound implications for the role of God in the

affairs of the universe. With the success of scientific theories in

describing events, most people have come to believe that God allows

the universe to evolve according to a set of laws and does not

intervene in the universe to break these laws. However, the laws do

not tell us what the universe should have looked like when it

started - it would still be up to God to wind up the clockwork and

choose how to start it off. So long as the universe had a beginning,

we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really

completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have

neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for

a creator?