Stephen Hawking is one of the ablest thinkers in the area of fundamental physics. He retired last year as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge; his was the chair once held by Isaac Newton. He is the author of the best-selling work, A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, in which he seems to admit the possibility that God may have been involved in the creation of the universe, claiming that if scientists could discover the most fundamental laws of nature “it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – then we should know the mind of God”. But he was speaking figuratively, and in June this year he spoke more explicitly in a series on Channel 4. He acknowledged that he did not believe in the existence of a personal God and explained that he was prepared to call the laws of science “God”, but this could not be a personal God.
Now, with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow as his co-author, Prof Hawking has published The Grand Design, which claims to give “new answers to the ultimate questions of life”. The book claims that the Big Bang – currently the most popular explanation for the beginning of the universe – was the result of the inevitable laws of physics; Prof Hawking here blatantly denies any need for God as Creator. “Because there is a law such as gravity,” he claims, “the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.” One finds it difficult to understand how there could be gravity, or even a law of gravity, before there was any created matter for gravity to act upon; scientific laws describe the properties of what is already in existence. And “spontaneous creation” can be rephrased as: It just happened, words without any scientific pretension. But to re-express the idea thus should make clear that the idea of spontaneous creation has no explanatory power whatever.
It is very difficult to avoid the thought that the universe has been designed. Hawking and Mlodinow accept that the tiniest of changes in the constants that control nuclear synthesis in stars would mean a universe with no carbon and no oxygen, a universe where human life would be impossible. They admit
that “the universe and its laws appear to have a design that both is tailor-made to support us and, if we are to exist, leaves little room for alternation. That is not easily explained, and raises the natural question of why it is that way.” For an explanation they rely on M-theory (though it seems no one is sure what M stands for). However, in a review of The Grand Design in the Financial Times, Roger Penrose, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, states flatly: “M-theory enjoys no observational support whatever”. No one has been able to test the theory experimentally; indeed it seems that any such experiment would require a particle accelerator as large as a galaxy. Yet it is on a theory so speculative, so entirely unproven, that Professor Hawking places his confidence in discarding the idea of a creator.
The perception of design in the universe is, in fact, entirely valid; it is not to be dismissed as something that merely “appears” to be the case. The designer was, of course, the eternal God, whose infinite wisdom and infinite power brought about a universe that is “tailor-made to support” the human race and every other form of life. What is more, God has revealed Himself as the Creator in Scripture – not only in Genesis 1 but repeatedly. For instance, He declares in Isaiah 45:18: “Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else”. On the basis of His creatorship, He claims sovereignty over all His creatures; there is no other god. And if the idea of a god means anything, it identifies a being who is to be worshipped. Accordingly, the one true God, who made all things, must be worshipped. Every angel, and every human being – including Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow – is under obligation to offer sincere worship to the sovereign Creator.
In the beginning, both Adam and Eve worshipped God sincerely and consistently, but they fell; they became rebellious. Ever since then it has been natural for fallen human beings to resist the authority of God. The fool has said in his heart that there is no God (Ps 14:1), but it requires a further degree of rebelliousness to deny to others that God exists. In an age such as this, that denial has become increasingly common. It is an indication that God is very much leaving this generation to itself. Accordingly we see high rates of crime (though recent figures have come down from their peak), flagrant immorality and low rates of religious observance (though there is much more religious observance in the USA than in other Western countries).
Yet we have to acknowledge that society in Great Britain, in particular, has not disintegrated, and we may attribute this, not only to the residue of a Christian heritage, but to the fact that God’s people still function as salt. In the
words of the Saviour: “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Mt 5:13). C H Spurgeon points out that in the character of believers “there is a preserving force to keep the rest of society from utter corruption. If they were not scattered among men, the race would putrefy.” And on the basis of the rest of the verse: “but if the salt have lost his saviour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men,” Spurgeon insists: “But if they are Christians only in name, and the real power is gone, nothing can save them, and they are of no use whatever to those among whom they mingle”.1
Nominal Christians are not real salt; genuine believers are. Their example has, more or less, a restraining effect on others. Most important is their intercession before God, as they come before Him day after day to plead for the good of their communities and their nation, asking Him to restrain sin and work by His Word and Spirit so that sinners would acknowledge His authority, trust in the Saviour and lead holy lives. Had there been even 10 praying people in Sodom, the city would have been spared the destruction that fell on it because of its gross immorality. We may also assume that the example and witness of 10 godly people in the city would have resulted in a significant restraint on its wickedness. Clearly the number of true believers in Britain today, small though it is in relation to the total population, is vastly in excess of 10. God’s longsuffering towards the nation is related to their prayers.
Today the educational system and the media, almost unanimously, promote the idea that the universe and everything in it, including life – from microbes to man – came into existence without even the assistance of a creator. And Satan, without a doubt, uses the widespread acceptance of evolution to blind the eyes of people generally to the fact of the Creator’s existence and of their obligation to obey Him and worship Him. But we must not be intimidated. However able those minds may be which point us away from God, we must ignore speculative and unbelieving conclusions and hold fast to the facts revealed in Scripture. There, and only there, will we find reliable answers to the ultimate questions of life.
God’s revelation is entirely without error. It tells us not only about the origins of the universe and of the human race, but what will follow this life. It tells us about heaven and hell, and it tells us how we may enter the one and escape the other. It tells us, as far as He wills to reveal it, the mind of the personal God, the God who really exists. Because He really exists, it is our duty to worship and serve Him. It is our duty to approach Him in the way that He has appointed: through Jesus Christ, His own Son, who came into the world – the world that He had created – to save sinners.
1 Commentary on Matthew, Banner of Truth reprint, 2010, p 40.