God, the Universe, Whatever

Big news! No gods were required to create the universe. The universe exists because of spontaneous creation. Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mldodinow make this clear in their new book , “The Grand Design”. A snippet can be found in the 9/2/10, Wall Street Journal article, “ Why God Did Not Create the Universe”. As the illustrious physicists put it , “the laws of gravity and quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.” Take that Aristotle and you too Newton. No god created the universe! Of course if Aristotle and Newton were still around and had the benefit of today’s science, they might have come to the same conclusion as Hawking.

I cannot refute anything Hawking says. Not that I necessarily agree with him. How do you agree or disagree with something that is beyond your bank of knowledge. I’m sure he knows what he is talking about but I wish he had been more explicit as to whether there is a God or not. God may not have created the universe, but was he around when the Big Bang occurred? If God did not create the universe, does it mean that there is no God? I suspect that whether or not God exists is strictly a matter of what any one individual is comfortable with. Since there are no laws of nature which can attest to the existence of a God, it probably is proper to get God out the “creation of the universe” babble. Hawking has the laws of physics on his side. Besides we humans or “lords of creation”, as Hawking puts it, have really messed up the universe. If God exists he would not have allowed that to happen. Or would he?

After thirty minutes of meditation, I’m almost ready to conclude that God did not create the universe and that the laws of physics were responsible for the creation of the universe. But laws must come from someone. Did God create the laws? If so, it might be argued that God was responsible for creating the universe. Perhaps the answer to the puzzle is that God is actually the laws of gravity and quantum theory? After another five minutes of intense meditation, Oohmmmnnn …., does it really matter? Whatever, its time for Happy Hour. Before I have that drink, one more thought. Why don’t we, the lords of creation, create a universal God out of the chaotic versions of God which exist in our universe. Then the universe and God and whatever will be in complete harmony. Is God Nature with all its laws? Oohmmmnnn …. whatever.  I'll drink to that!