SOME THOUGHTS ON STEPHEN W. HAWKING

      SOME THOUGHTS ON STEPHEN W. HAWKING

By: Kassim Ahmad

10^th June, 2016

kassimahmad333@yahoo.com.my

            Yesterday I saw a documentary “The Theory of Everything”, featuring the life of the famous British physicist and cosmologist, Stephen W. Hawking. Although early in life he suffered from a disease, he has spent his entire adult life up to the  present,  investigating the workings of the Universe. His conclusions are that the Universe came  into being and evolved by itself and hence there is no creator-god who created it.

            His political views are interesting. He is a leftist. He denounced the Vietnam War, the invasion and conquest of Iraq and he supports the Palestinian people. Religiously he proclaims himself as an atheist, although in that documentary, when asked by a man in the audience whether he believed in God or not, he kept silent for a few seconds before stating, “As long as there is life, there is hope,” evading to answer the question, but the audience nevertheless applaused him.

            What might he mean by that? Has he reconsidered his atheism. Only God knows.

            I am somewhat perplexed by his definite declaration of atheism. As a physicist, he knows that nothing happens by itself. Someone must do something for an effect to take place. For instance, I must have an intention to write this article, before this article can come into being. It cannot come into being before I carry out that intention. Then there will be effects on readers; then these effects will cause my replies, and so et infinitum.

So some power must have created this Universe, although we did see him doing it. This Universe, being made up of matter, will in time decay and get destroyed when the energy in it has all been used up. This is simple logic. How can genius Stephen Hawking not see it?

            Now come the difficult part – the Uncaused Cause, in the phraseology of the philosophers. Who or what causes the Uncaused Cause? To unswer this question, we have to go back to the science of knowing. How do we know? In philosophy it is called epistemology.

            Epistemology consists of three phases.  Firstly the physical evidence. Lets us say you are holding a pencil in your hand. This is witnessing by the sensory organs: you see a pencil with your eyes and feeling it in your hand. Then you ask: where does the pencil come from? You answer: it comes from a craftsman who  makes it in a factory. How do you know this? By logical deduction. Logical evidence is thus the second phase.

            The last phase, you ask: where do the craftsman and the factory come from? The answer: the earth, the world or the Universe. This answer is not yet complete. You go on to ask: where does the Universe come from? The atheists the like of genius Stephen Hawking proudly answers: The Universe exists by itself, thus breaking the physical law they so proudly uphold. In other word, the atheists know only partially. They do not hold the whole truth.

            What is the whole truth? The whole truth consists of three parts: the sensory, the logical, and the suprasensory or supralogical. The suprasensory or supralogical is not contradictory to the sensory or the logical. It is the higher sense, and the higher logic. It stands by itself. Thus the unseen power behind the Universe is the Truth with a capital T. Truth stands by itself. Truth is Self-Existing, the Necessary Being of philosophy, the Universe being contingent upon the Necessary Being.

            How do we know this? Look at ourselves. What is the power that sustains me writing this article out of nothing? It is what is called the soul, the consciousness. Can you spot where your soul or your consciousness is in your body? The answers is: No. Yet without it, I cannot write this article. I cannot think. I cannot create. We cannot create civilizations. Thus is this power we call God. Without this Self-Existing Necessary Being there will not be this Universe. Yet this Universe is material and will collapse upon itself when the energy in it is exhausted, just as the lights in our houses will go out when our electricity supply is cut off.

            Thus is the fate of the Universe many billions of years to come. At that time, as the Quran states, only the face of God remains. (Quran, 28: 88 & 55:26-27).

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KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysian author. His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com