LONDON:“There is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate,” celebrated physicist and a known atheist Stephen Hawking writes in his final book, which also covers important existential questions such as creation of the universe, alien intelligence, space colonisation and artificial intelligence.
Published by John Murray (a Hachette company), “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” is a selection of the late cosmologist’s most profound, accessible, and timely reflections from his personal archive.
“For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God. Well, I suppose it’s possible that I’ve upset someone up there, but I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature,” he wrote in the chapter titled “Is There a God?”
He says he uses the word ‘God’ in an impersonal sense, like Albert Einstein did, for the laws of nature, so knowing the mind of God is knowing the laws of nature.
“My prediction is that we will know the mind of God by the end of this century.”
According to Hawking, who died in March, the universe is the ultimate free lunch and if the “universe adds up to nothing, then you don’t need a God to create it”.
Did he have faith?
He answers, “We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is that there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate.” (AGENCIES)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
