Stephen Hawking

[hermes2007]

No one else seems to want to mention this, though I've had loads of emails mainly from my American friends wanting to talk about it. I once saw Hawking's in Cambridge and was genuinely thrilled to nod at a genuine genius, not like those pseudo-celebrities on Big Brother and its clones. It was funny last night hearing all the priests trying to play this down on the news last night.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7979093/Stephen-Hawking-religious-leaders-dismiss-God-not-needed-comments.html

Ah well if I go to hell, I'll be in good company.

[Yokel1]

All it does is asks the same questions over and over god vs science, god is science, science is science there is no god......it just goes on and on and on and on.

I am not especially religious - I think it is unlikely there is a god or God - but when all is said and done it gives comfort to a lot of people and is the basis of our way of life.   

I have been astonished over the last two or three years the amount of disrespect it has become fashionable to show towards christians - almost to the point of abuse.   I find this sad.

[Clevercat]

I am contstantly pondering over religion, Christianity really, and whether there is truth in it, of course I have my beliefs, but I do think alot of people who are practising Christians seem more at peace and ease with themselves.   And I envy that.

It does help people cope in very hard circumstances at times, ie, when a loved one is lost, it acts as reassurance, comfort, a crutch,.............

The sad thing about religion is the amount of anguish and fear it can cause.

[Yokel1]

Nah, I reckon its people who cause most of the anguish and fear in this world.   

[Clevercat]

Yes, but you know what I mean. LOL  (just to annoy you with text speak)

[Alg]

In my opinion there is no God, but if believing there is gives people solace and a sense of hope and belonging I can't see what harm it can do.
It all goes wrong when there're arguments over who's God is bigger and better. 

[hermes2007]

You can never win this argument. I've met some really lovely Christians (and Jews, and Muslims as it happens) and some who were so holier than thou I thought the Romans were about right about their imaginative use of wild life. I don't believe Jesus (or Buddha for that matter) really existed and I do think people would be better for trying to believe in the universe as it probably is, rather than how they would like it to be. Spitituality  and moral ethics is something else - nothing wrong with trying to be a decent human being, and I have seen some very odd things in my time that I don't pretend to be able to fully explain.

Sorry for another quote:
Sir Arthur Eddington, an English astronomer, said that the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.