Stephen Hawking’s “The Grand Design”
I am planning a longer review, but in case anyone is wondering what I think about Hawking’s new book, which is reviewed (e.g. here and here) with titles like “God did not create the universe, says Hawking”, let me just say for now, like one of my colleagues did earlier today:
“Hawking did not create the universe, says God.”
Stay tuned to hear more about the book’s dismal display of extreme philosophical and theological naïveté.
[Note - Quotes in my remarks below are from the pre-publication edition, and may be different from the published edition.]
For example, they characterize the notion that “the laws were the work of God [as] no more than a definition of God as the embodiment of the laws of nature.” (p. 29), “scientific determinism is the modern scientist’s answer” to the question of miracles (p. 30), “we are no more than biological machines and…free will is just an illusion.” (p. 32) Clearly the authors have never bothered to have even a quick glance in the pages of any academic journal on these topics, for they write, “philosophy is dead. …Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge” (p. 5) and ask very poorly formulated questions like, “Did the universe need a creator?” (p. 5)
Half of the The Grand Design’s chapter titles invite, but disappoint, the curious reader: The Mystery of Being, What Is Reality?, Choosing Our Universe, The Apparent Miracle. Hawking & Mlodinow approach deep spiritual, metaphysical, ontological, existential questions but instead of seriously engaging them, apply superficial physical-reductionistic answers. This is not surprising, given Hawking’s habit of ridiculing of religion as outmoded myth, but sad nevertheless as one could hope that he and Mlodinow could have learned from both atheist and Christian critiques of Dawkins and Hitchens. Apparently there remains a significant market for sloppy dismissal of anything to do with faith.
My review is planned for Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith.
“Hawking did not create the universe, says God.”
Stay tuned to hear more about the book’s dismal display of extreme philosophical and theological naïveté.
[Note - Quotes in my remarks below are from the pre-publication edition, and may be different from the published edition.]
For example, they characterize the notion that “the laws were the work of God [as] no more than a definition of God as the embodiment of the laws of nature.” (p. 29), “scientific determinism is the modern scientist’s answer” to the question of miracles (p. 30), “we are no more than biological machines and…free will is just an illusion.” (p. 32) Clearly the authors have never bothered to have even a quick glance in the pages of any academic journal on these topics, for they write, “philosophy is dead. …Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge” (p. 5) and ask very poorly formulated questions like, “Did the universe need a creator?” (p. 5)
Half of the The Grand Design’s chapter titles invite, but disappoint, the curious reader: The Mystery of Being, What Is Reality?, Choosing Our Universe, The Apparent Miracle. Hawking & Mlodinow approach deep spiritual, metaphysical, ontological, existential questions but instead of seriously engaging them, apply superficial physical-reductionistic answers. This is not surprising, given Hawking’s habit of ridiculing of religion as outmoded myth, but sad nevertheless as one could hope that he and Mlodinow could have learned from both atheist and Christian critiques of Dawkins and Hitchens. Apparently there remains a significant market for sloppy dismissal of anything to do with faith.
My review is planned for Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith.
posted by Arnold Sikkema at 2:41 p.m.
1 Comments:
A preliminary version of the review is published here.
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