August 8 - Stephen Hawking Explains Creation, Big Bang Sans God

Stephen Hawking presented his own theory to millions of viewers Sunday on how the universe came about – without God. The famed physicist and cosmologist is convinced that a "grand designer" was unnecessary in the creation of the universe. He made his case on the Discovery Channel as he sought to answer the question "Did God Create the Universe?"

Hawking essentially argued that it is possible that something can come out of nothing. "The laws of nature themselves tells us that not only can the universe have popped into existence like a proton and have required nothing in terms of energy but also that it is possible that nothing caused the big bang," he said on the show.

But Hawking sought to disprove the need for a Creator and instead explain everything through science – or what he considers the truth. He offered, "It's not quite as difficult as it seems."

You only need three ingredients to make a universe, he contended. Those ingredients are matter or mass, energy and space. But using Albert Einstein's famous equation, Hawking argued that mass and energy are basically the same thing. The big bang created the now two necessary ingredients for a universe: energy and space.

While some argue that this is where God comes into the picture because you can't create something out of nothing, Hawking argued that it is entirely possible. Particles such as protons, he said, behave according to quantum mechanics and can appear at random, then vanish, and then reappear somewhere else.

"In a nutshell, do we need a God to set it all up so that a big bang could bang?" Hawking posed. "I have no desire to offend anyone of faith but I think science has some more compelling explanation than a Divine Creator."

He concluded, "You can't get to a time before the big bang because there was no before the big bang. We have finally found something that doesn't have a cause because there was no time for a cause to exist in. For me, this means there is no possibility of a Creator because there is no time for a Creator to have existed. Since time itself began at the moment of the big bang, it was an event that could not have been caused or created by anyone or anything."