Stephen Hawking, the world-famous theoretical physicist, said:
“I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science…If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed, then it doesn’t take long to ask: What role is there for God?”
We need to ask our atheistic, naturalistic, materialistic, big bang cosmologist friends a few vital questions. What exactly do you mean by “nothing?” By nothing do you mean absolutely nothing, or do you actually mean something? And who created and fixed these laws of nature you keep talking about?
You see Hawking was an avid believer in and champion of the Big Bang theory. He believed the universe began by exploding suddenly out of an ultra-dense singularity smaller than an atom — and that’s not nothing. He believed that from this speck emerged all the matter, energy and empty space that the universe would ever contain — and a speck isn’t nothing, a speck from which everything in the universe supposedly emerged is definitely something! He believed all that raw material that emerged from the speck of something evolved into the cosmos we perceive today by following a strict set of scientific laws — and that’s not nothing either, that’s a preexisting strict set of laws — and where do you get a strict set of scientific laws without a Law Giver? Stephen Hawking and the majority of secular scientists believe the laws of gravity, relativity, and quantum physics explain where the cosmos came from and all life in it — and those laws that govern the material universe aren’t nothing!
Clearly recognizing that a set of invariant, universal, immaterial, strict laws to which the entire material universe is subject to demands a Law Giver, Hawking wrote, “If you like, you can say the laws are the work of God, but that is more a definition of God than a proof of his existence.”
In Hawking’s conclusion to the first chapter of his final book, he wrote, “We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.” Saints, you don’t have the near-infinite design evident everywhere in our universe without the Grand Designer of Genesis chapter 1!
Let me humanize Stephen Hawking just a bit and then make a final important point. Hawking’s research career began at the University of Cambridge in 1962 with a big bang. No, not the Big Bang, but a personal big bang to his life and sense of wellbeing. At 21 years of age, just after entering his Ph.D. program, he was diagnosed with a devastating degenerative motor neuron disease. He was told he had two years to live. Another big bang came in 1962. Hawking was told Sir Fred Hoyle, his chosen Ph.D. supervisor, had no room for him as a student. As the most famous British astrophysicist in the world at that time, Sir Hoyle was the much sought after supervisor for up-and-coming physicists. Hawking simply didn’t make the cut. He was assigned to work with a little known physicist by the name of Dennis Sciama. The degenerative disease quickly weakened Hawking’s body, but his mind remained sharp. Two years into his Ph.D. work his motor skills began to fail. He had trouble walking and talking, but he was very much still alive. He defied the doctors and lived on to marry and have three children. Mr. Hawking died in 2018 at the age of 76…54 years after the doctors said he would die. Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement:
“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world. He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”
Elsewhere, Hawking had this to say about death, “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” Saints, what is love in an atheistic, naturalistic, materialistic universe according to the atheists’ worldview? If all we are is soulless products of random chance and time; if all we are is space dust fizzing according to a strict set of laws along with the rest of the material universe; if our friends, parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren are just cosmic computers made of space dust, with no soul, and no afterlife — then love in this universe is a meaningless fairy story for people afraid of the dark — and Lucy, Robert, and Tim’s statement about missing a broken down computer forever is just a fairytale too. If atheism, naturalism, and materialism are true — then there is nothing: no laws, no space, no time, no matter, no gravity, no life, no design, and no love.
Ex Nihilio, Nihil Fit. From nothing, nothing comes. The fact that you actually exist, that you’re reading this right now, and your hearts are actually full of love for your living and deceased friends and family members means atheism, naturalism, and materialism aren’t true. The God and truth of Genesis 1:1 are the only explanation for the cosmos, all life, and all love in it!
