There is no heaven, it ‘is a fairy story,’ Stephen Hawking says

[Unforgiven]

And insulting people as an opener gets them to listen to any of that? No. Not one bit. BTW... Hawking never said any of that in the article you posted. He merely threw out an insult, and said he's in no hurry to die. Not a very deep insight into the role of religion in the world and all.

Some people just need an excuse to dismiss what they don't want to hear. How flimsy the excuse is, doesn't much matter.

 

[Corduroy]

To be specific, in the few quotes from the very short article posted, Hawkings isn't saying religion is for people afraid of the dark, he says belief in the afterlife is. This statement makes sense from an atheist's perspective and isn't exactly meant as insulting. "Afraid of the dark" simply means a fear of death. Is it really that big of a stretch to say people believe in the afterlife because they fear death? Some people just look for reasons to be offended.

 

[Unforgiven]

I'm not really going to comment on Hawking, but I just wanted to chime in to have us think about the future. A future wherein a horrified society will actually look back into their past (our present) with contempt and disgust. Our children's children will duly be horrified (and amazed) at how primitive we were to slaughter each other over something that didn't have any verifiable merit.

I don't think my age will be looked upon as occupied by as stupid a people as the Darkages, but neither will we be seen as at all enlightened. Horror maybe pity probably.

 

[gerryh]

There is a difference between belief and knowledge. It's fine to have faith and believe in something, no one says any different. It's when that belief crosses over to knowledge without the trials of proof that problems get started. When they start to go from something you believe to something I have to abide then there is serious trouble.

Hawking, in the midst of all the war going on over religion right now, points out that there is nothing at all that shows there is a heaven, a god or any such thing. Not one tiny little shred of proof. Not one. Never has been. For all the thousands of years, not a single speck of proof. While we've found all kinds of proof for all kinds of other stuff, good indicators that draw us to investigate in great detail and close inspection to find out the truth of the matter, religion zip.

While some say we have to go to war and kill a lot of people because that's what God wants, Hawking points out that not only does no one have the slightest clue as to what God wants, there isn't even a God to want anything. So we should knock off all the religious crap and stop killing each other over it. As a few people here have said, there is a warning that comes form God of what will happen to my soul if I don't kowtow before the word. Like the boogie man, like the devils imp, like the communists and like the terrorists. To the point that the book had to be rewritten to get rid of some of the totally insane bull that no one was going to believe anyway.

Not once has religion passed beyond the take my word for it point. While it's entertaining to go there sometimes, even possible to learn a lesson or two, it's down right ****ing retarded to take that on as the meaning, purpose and
only point to life and live accordingly. Worse take that unarguable position and do harm to others because they don't agree with it.

Now if Hawking wanted to do the same thing, he would have to commit so many atrocities, he would need a staff in the millions just to get through it all before his kids die of old age. Assuming he would use modern technology to speed up the process. So to say it's the same thing, not fu cking hardly.



You shouldn't even use that word.

Of course I'm going to go there, You have stated you don't appreciate being told that you're <insert negative adjective here> if you don't believe in God, yet here you are doing exactly that in regards to those that DO believe in God.

The vast majority of people that believe in God do NOT evangelize or do anywhere near what you are "bitching" about. You are "bitching" about a few people or groups that you can very easily just ignore.

As for the new tact you decided to take with war, religion is not the ONLY reason mankind has gone to war. As a matter of fact it is in the minority. "God" may be, or have been, cited as being on one side or the other, but God nor religion was the true reason for that war.

 

[GreenFish66]

Look to the Heaven's Above, and BEHOLD, the Vast Connectedness of the Holy Whole Universe..


The Heavens/Universe is above, within, and all around ...Is Big Papa G's Territory ..

BPG Is On another Level .
A Higher Level

Careful. ..

Big Brother is Watching ..And so are "They"..


So believe !..

Cuz on THAT day ..Your gonna pray ..
There's something Greater..

All believe...

We are of iITt. iITt is in us all ..

In 1 Holy Wholeness of Universal Connectedness..

Call iITt. What you will .

( Me?, I interchange Heavens/ Universe where appropriate..)


I for 1.. Believe .

_________________________-

The Spirit of Stephen Hawking will live on ..( Whether he knows it or not.Who knows?.)