Discussion on Stephen Hawking\'s new book "The Grand Design"

RRS · Post by **RRS** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 1:45 am

Book can be obtained here:The-Grand-Design by Stephen-Hawking

God did not create the Universe

Some excepts: His latest comments suggest he has broken away from previous views he has expressed on religion. Previously, he wrote that the laws of physics meant it was simply not necessary to believe that God had intervened in the Big Bang. He wrote in A Brief History ... "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God."
In his latest book, he said the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting another star other than the Sun helped deconstruct the view of the father of physics Isaac Newton that the universe could not have arisen out of chaos but was created by God.
"That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions -- the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings," he writes.

Have been a reader of Stephen Hawking's works and looking forward to read this too. Am not sure whether the thread belongs in 'religion' sub-forum. Anyone else read the book/preview so far? What are your thoughts like looking forward or nothing new knowing Hawking's body of work in Cosmology and quantum physics ?

boca · Post by **boca** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:09 am

Timely! I am reading the "transcript from the live webchat with Richard Dawkins, Ruth Gledhill and Hannah Devlin from 2.30pm Wednesday 2nd September 2010, in the wake of Stephen Hawking?s assertion that God played no role in creating the Universe."

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/509756-live-14-30-bst-the-god-debate

Will read the book before comments specific to the book. :)

After completing what I am reading now:
1. Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Hanh Thich Nhat, Cheung Lilian
2. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan
3. Animal liberation by Peter Singer

boca · Post by **boca** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:31 am

boca2blr;325092Timely! I am reading the "transcript from the live webchat with Richard Dawkins, Ruth Gledhill and Hannah Devlin from 2.30pm Wednesday 2nd September 2010, in the wake of Stephen Hawking?s assertion that God played no role in creating the Universe."

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/509756-live-14-30-bst-the-god-debate[/quote]
LOL. Richard Dawkins response leaves me smiling. It would have been Desi's response as well. :)
[quote]15:12 Richard Dawkins:
"Works for me? Works for me?" What are you talking about? A lunatic who believes he is Napoleon could say, "My belief that I am Napoleon WORKS FOR ME". Who is supposed to be convinced?

15:19 Richard Dawkins:
"Comment From Andrew K
If Darwin removed God from biology and physiology, and now Hawking is attempting a similar approach in Physics, is there room for a God in Chemistry? Wierd question, but there still is very little explanation for naturally occuring elements, such as nitrogen, that has no human use, but still exists."

Oh wonderful. Another gap? Is God now hiding among the test-tubes having been driven out of everywhere else?[/quote]

boca · Post by **boca** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:09 am

Can you tag a poll to this thread similar to the one on guardian.co.uk please?

Is physicist Stephen Hawking right that physics, not God, created the universe?
A. Yes. I believe in gravity, not divinity
B. No. God: Hawking 'not necessary'

Thanks

RRS · Post by **RRS** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:53 pm

Before I read any work on quantum physics and understand it (a little bit) while reading, I usually read below book to refresh and thought it might help few others too.
The Elegant Universe:Superstrings-Dimensions-Ultimate
Plus for people like me who like Physics but are neither career physicists nor have time to sink deep in understanding of Theoretical_physics, M-theory and String_theory , the articles in this site usually help; YMMV.
Honestly I do read such books to keep memory of my once title of 'Scientist' : )

boca · Post by **boca** » Sat Sep 04, 2010 2:07 am

Thanks for the reference to The Elegant Universe. Will check it out.

RaReSha3;325484Plus for people like me who like Physics but are neither career physicists nor have time to sink deep in understanding of Theoretical_physics, M-theory and String_theory , the articles in this site usually help; YMMV.[/quote]
Will check the site. Thanks.

If you need a cheat sheet, this may help -> http://universe-review.ca/F15-particle.htm. The reference links at the end of the page will lead you to further details on specific subjects.

Here is a site for you, in return. This covers Particle Physics. Simple, yet very informative. http://hepdata.cedar.ac.uk/lbl/particleadventure/index.html

RaReSha3;325484Honestly I do read such books to keep memory of my once title of 'Scientist' : )

Once a Scientist, always a Scientist. :) Plus, we need a few of them on the fence or the other side of this God argument. :)

P_Jani · Post by **P_Jani** » Sat Sep 04, 2010 2:29 am

Very interesting and good going.

It seems like the days are not that far that eventually the whole concept of GOD and religions will be eliminated from the human society systems. :thup:

They have already found 200+ planets (like earth) which are just right distant from it's stars , they are rotating around and very soon they will also pin-point find the ones,
that this planet for sure carries the life and meant to be, just like our blue planet !

See and read all 20 pictures here::

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=5220&gid=383

Hats off to the science:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_britain_hawking;_ylt=Ag3sZEKxy087vbz5PpkpLPyWwvIE;_ylu=X3oDMTMzMWgzNTF2BGFzc2V0Ay9zL25tL3VzX2JyaXRhaW5faGF3a2luZwRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzEwBHBvcwMxMARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2dvZGRpZG5vdGNyZQ--
(also read all public opinions below the news )

http://www.ted.com/speakers/stephen_hawking.html

:thup:

P_Jani · Post by **P_Jani** » Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:17 pm

RaReSha3;325484Before I read any work on quantum physics and understand it (a little bit) while reading, I usually read below book to refresh and thought it might help few others too.
The Elegant Universe:Superstrings-Dimensions-Ultimate
Plus for people like me who like Physics but are neither career physicists nor have time to sink deep in understanding of Theoretical_physics, M-theory and String_theory , the articles in this site usually help; YMMV.
Honestly I do read such books to keep memory of my once title of 'Scientist' : )

Local libraries in the US, carries almost all of such books that you mentioned,
also I know some hugh web sites, which also carries the e-books for tons of such books, free to download.

However now a days, a lots of such material is also available on DVD ( Discovery / Nat Geo ), which I prefer the most due to animations and graphic presentation
and your local public libraries, must carry those.

Few VDOs from "Stanford" are also available on youtube, which I love watch in my spare time.
Those are 1.5 hour+ each, by a stanford lecturer and really interesting to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbmf0bB38h0

On the same run, SET of 12 Lectures here
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Einstein%27s+General+Theory+of+Relativity&aq=f

..............

boca · Post by **boca** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:57 pm

We should go see a movie...:)

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Discussion on Stephen Hawking\'s new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"

Discussion on Stephen Hawking's new book "The Grand Design"