Hawking Again

Stephen Hawking has made a couple headlines this year-- no doubt part of a marketing strategy to promote his latest book. First, Professor Hawking advised humanity should be wary about contacting alien civilizations, lest we risk meeting the same fate the Aztecs and Incas met at the hands of technologically more advanced Europeans, for example. That argument can be questioned. The natives the Europeans encountered, after all, had things the Europeans wanted-- from gold to human souls in need of saving by the Christian god. Likely, humanity over the next few centuries will have little or nothing that would fire an interstellar civilization to nastiness.

Now, Hawking has said God is not necessary to account for the creation of the universe. That's hardly a surprising position coming from a sciemtist, except it does seem to be different from an earlier statement Hawking made. Of course, changing views in light of more evidence and a deeper understanding of nature is precisely what scientists should do, if necessary. Hawking, indeed, seems to make an argument consistent with the approach of a scientist. He says a Creator is not necessary for the creation of the universe because that creation flows naturally from the laws of physics. He does not seem to say, however, that because God isn't necessary, God doesn't exist. That might be a distinction without a difference, but it could also be a deliberate formulation from a careful scientist. This is also a tricky area. Even if Hawking is right about the laws of physics, we still can't explain how those laws emerged precisely as they are, governing the universe we know.