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2010-09-02 04:52:35
Stephen Hawking The Universe can create itself from nothing, says Prof Hawking
There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe,
Professor Stephen Hawking has said.
He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science
but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of
the laws of physics.
The Grand Design, part serialised in the Times, says there is no need to invoke
God to set the Universe going.
"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something," he concluded.
'Planetary conditions'
In his new book, an extract of which appears in the Times, Britain's most
famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the
universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of
chaos.
Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he
said: "That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single
Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less
remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully
designed just to please us human beings."
He adds: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will
create itself 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."
The book was co-written by US physicist Leonard Mlodinow and is published on 9
September.
In his 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time, Prof Hawking appeared to
accept the role of God in the creation of the Universe.
"If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human
reason - for then we should know the mind of God," he said.