Or, If He Climbed Stairs Like Everyone Else

62 Replies to “Or, If He Climbed Stairs Like Everyone Else”

Ah yes, Hawking is having a Micheal J Fox moment. Cue Rush Limbaugh….
This guy is grasping at straws; he’s a media whore. His comments earlier in the year that it’s a “bad idea” to try and make contact with extra terrestrials because they might not be nice, brought me to the realization that this guy has fallen off his rocker(pun intended).
Thanks allot Einstein!!! These two most recent pronouncements clearly show that Hot Rod Hawking has nothing important to say that he already hasn’t said.

Justthinkin,
Yes I and my son’s sibling’s will take great care in helping him understand the nuances behind people’s words. That said, one must remember that effusive adulation makes the “giver” feel not only good about the recipient, but also about themselves. So, if we were to take the situation of Mr. Hawking, those that like to heap praise on him feel good about themselves in the process. That puts a whole other dimension on it doesn’t it? Until you have been knitted into the culture of disability, no amount of education and philosophizing can bring to it’s full understanding, even if your are a physics genius. It’s kind of like our own universe to understand. 😉

Let the scientists create man by first making their own dirt.

Hawking is getting just plain weird. This week he’s supposedly disproved God; before that he was saying we shouldn’t try to contact extra-terrestrials because they’re probably evil and will eat us or something; and before that he was urging us to prioritize space colonization because planet Earth is doomed doomed DOOMED!
I hear that, politically, he’s quite a leftist. Quel surprise!

When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing – they believe in anything. -GK Chesterton.

Hawking is one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the last 50 years.
Amazing to hear the crowd here attempt to diminish his work (which they almost certainly do not understand).
Equally amazing is that the same crowd seem offended that Hawking dared to suggest that God is not needed to explain the universe.
For Pete’s sake, God hasn’t been necessary in science for 500 years!
(God might be necessary for other reasons, which is probably why He was invented in the first place.)

Most amazing (and disturbing) is some individuals suggestion that Hawking is only famous due to his disabilities, i.e. some kind of affirmative action effect. Of course done in a slightly ridiculing manner.
Disgusting.

John,
Mr, Hawking is a brilliant man. His A Brief History of Time was given to me by an Anglican bishop to read many years ago. Yes, we do read books. I am sorry you think I don’t understand him. Even if I shook my religiously addled head I would think him clever. That does not mean I have to agree with him.
The suggestion that those who disagree with him are incapable of understanding his ideas is both insulting and silly.
Many of the most thoughtful men I have known have been members of the cloth. They to the man, were not stupid but were curious about the world around them. and made great company.
They laughed, talked and most importantly, did not sneer at those who disagreed with them.

wnmc,
– Great, we agree that Hawking is a brilliant man (assuming you mean “Johan” when you write “John”).
– Perhaps you understand his work, but I would guess that 99.9% of the posters here do not.
– Of course clergymen can be thoughtful (I have a couple in my family), who argues otherwise?
– Yes, the sneering (e.g. at Hawking, and his disabilities) is really disturbing.
– But surely you agree that God is not needed in science?

Johan,
I suppose your reference to the “disability” post was directed at myself. I don’t recall ever stating that I understood the work of Mr. Hawking, but I did state that I have first hand knowledge of how people with disabilities are treated.
Are you saying that your obvious high intellectual abilities encompasses the realm of disability experience? That is my area of expertise. It is, indeed, disgusting to dismiss another’s experiences or knowledge in an effort to build oneself up.
Please note the irony of your initial post.

Sorry Johan,
The sneering remark was aimed at you,
You cannot seem to understand that being condescending to people is insulting.
A lot of us gun clinging, knuckle dragging right wingers do read in between shooting game and oiling our weapons.
As for God and science- well science means ‘knowledge’ from the latin scentia. Knowledge is an all encompassing term. It draws the secular and the spiritual into its realm.
Again I go back to the priests. Through out time they were the ones that recorded and documented knowledge in our world. Sure, sometimes they tried to bury it, but so have some modern men of science.
Is there room for God in science? I would say yes. It is far better than your suggested alternative where God is removed.
The most brilliant men in science believed in God or Gods. Copernicus, Bacon, Galileo, Kepler, Newton oh and Einstein.
Ignore thoughtful discourse Johan, and you are nothing but an
empty barrel. Again sorry I got your name wrong. Mine is Nick.

Hi Nick,
What’s with the gun references? Fyi, although I do not own a gun myself, I am a very strong defender of the “2nd amendment” principle (the right to self defense, against other individuals as well as against the state).
When was I condescending?
One reason science has progressed so impressively is that it does not need a God to explain anything. It only needs science, i.e the scientific method, reason, logic, observations, experiments, mathematics, etc.
That of course does not mean that science can explain everything. As you rightly point out, knowledge is more than science. But in this context, I think science refers to physics, in which case I (and apparently Hawking) argue that God is not needed.

62 Replies to “Or, If He Climbed Stairs Like Everyone Else”

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