Originally Posted by
Fung Koo
Respectfully, I disagree that this addresses the topic at hand. The video you posted is merely a rant calling a group of people stupid, which would be against the rules of this forum were you to type those things yourself into a post. Nor does it add anything to the debate.
Religion is one matter, faith another, and the question at the core of this topic is another still. The discussion at hand is "the prime cause" of existence. In his most recent book, Hawking says that science has outmoded philosophy. Yet Hawking famously concluded his A Brief History of Time saying:
Hawking's religious beliefs have been identified as atheist since the point when he made this comment. The question of what he means by "God" here has been a point of argument for a long time. In a nutshell, Hawking retained God as the placeholder of existence -- which is to say, the unanswerable question of "where does existence itself come from?"
It is less a religious question than it is either philosophical or scientific. In a nutshell -- stripping everything related to belief away (i.e. religion and faith), why is there existence at all? Not "why is your faith subverting the freedom of your mind?" where the rant in the video you posted would lead, but to the fundamental question of existence itself. Stripping away the cladding of the infinitude of faiths that have existed in human history, every religion can be understood as a model of understanding existence. Science, too. Yet for science's efforts, it hasn't been able to answer the question of primary cause. Until now, says Hawking.
Hawking has published a new book wherein he postulates that his previous position of God and the placeholder of existence, the primary cause, is no longer necessary. It is now, he is arguing, an answered question. Science has stated, through M-Theory, that a primary cause -- God -- is not necessary to explain existence.
As others have pointed out earlier in this thread though, science has not in fact answered the question -- it has only removed it from being an issue for our existence. Our existence is, the argument of M-Theory goes, one amongst many. All of which are arising from something else. From whence that "something else" arose, neither I nor Hawking have any idea...
So, God did not create our universe, says science. But it is still quiet on the issue of where the strings themselves came from. In his article, Hawking says that science has outmoded philosophy. The discussion at hand is: has it really?
So, sorry, but that video ain't the topic.
