SOME
THOUGHTS ON STEPHEN W. HAWKING
By: Kassim
Ahmad
10th 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 certain 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 need for a creator-god to create 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 now believes in God or not, he
kept silent for a while before stating, “As long as there is life, there is
hope,” evading to answer the question, but the audience nevertheless applauded
him.
What might he mean by that? Has he reconsidered his erstwhile atheism?
Only Hawking and God know.
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 this 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 answer 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 words, 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, by which all things exist, the Necessary Being of philosophy, the
Universe being contingent upon the Necessary Being that we call God.
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 homes will go out when our
electricity supply is cut off. This, again, is simple logic. Is it not amazing
that genius Hawking cannot understang it?
Thus is the fate of the Universe
many billions of years to come. When the energy in it is no more, it will
collapse upon itself, leaving only the face of God, as the Quran states.
(Quran, 28: 88 & 55:26-27).
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KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysian author.
His website is www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com
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