"Sophomore" (and Stephen Hawking) = Wise Fool

Did you hear about Stephen Hawking’s new claim? In his soon-to-be-released book The Grand Design, he says that God was not necessary to create the universe…just the laws of physics.

Until his retirement last year, Dr. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton. To say that Hawking is brilliant would be an understatement, but in this case his perspective is stereotypically (for many within the scientific community) unintelligent.

“Mr. Hawking? [Ahem] Where do you think the laws of physics come from?”

This reminds me of the story I told recently in a sermon about two scientists who learned how to clone humans, and, so, decided to challenge God. They said to God, “We can create life by ourselves now. We don’t need you anymore.”

So God said, “Okay, then let’s have a man-making contest.”

“Alright,” said the scientists. “We’ll do it like you did in the beginning.” Then they reached down to grab a handful of dirt to begin to form a man. But they heard God’s voice from heaven saying, “Nuh-uh-uh, you have to make your own dirt.”

Brothers and sisters, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Some might say, “Ah, but Larry, science is based on empirical, observable evidence. Science can be proved. Faith can’t.” Really? Hawking hasn’t “proved” his latest idea. Darwin couldn’t “prove” his theory of evolution. Sagan never “proved” the existence of black holes. All of these brilliant minds chose to have faith in their ideas when the science to prove them simply could not be found.

(By the way, I believe in the existence of black holes although no one has ever seen one. We see what must be the evidence of black holes, but no one has actually—empirically—observed a black hole. It takes faith to believe in black holes. But I digress…)

Although Hawking expressed in his 1988 book A Brief History of Time a belief in God and His role in the creation of the universe, he no longer holds that view. But Hawking is still a man of faith, only now his faith is in himself instead of God. Proverbs 12:15—“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.”