We are quantum fluctuations, according to Stephen Hawking, in a lecture on the origin of the universe given at California Institute of Technology on 16 April 2013, and reported in Los Angeles Times 17 April 2013. Hawking presented various theories on how the universe began, beginning with an African tribal creation story and working his way through various steady state theories of the universe, which claim it had no beginning and then went onto theories that claimed it had a beginning, which were resisted by atheistic scientists, according to Hawking, because: “If one believed that the universe had a beginning, the obvious question was what happened before the beginning? What was God doing before He made the world? Was He preparing Hell for people who asked such questions?”
However, the Big Bang theory, which gives the universe a beginning, has prevailed, and Hawking believes that Einstein’s relativity theory and quantum theory together can now explain the origin and history the universe. He explained: “The picture Jim Hartle and I developed of the spontaneous quantum creation of the universe would be a bit like the formation of bubbles of steam in boiling water. The idea is that the most probable histories of the universe would be like the surfaces of the bubbles. Many small bubbles would appear, and then disappear again. These would correspond to mini universes that would expand but would collapse again while still of microscopic size. They are possible alternative universes but they are not of much interest since they do not last long enough to develop galaxies and stars, let alone intelligent life. A few of the little bubbles, however, grow to a certain size at which they are safe from recollapse. They will continue to expand at an ever increasing rate, and will form the bubbles we see. They will correspond to universes that would start off expanding at an ever increasing rate”.
This rapid expansion is called “inflation” and because it was not absolutely uniform some regions were denser than others and the gravitational attraction of the extra density slows the expansion and causes those regions to collapse and form galaxies and stars. According to Hawking: “We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe. God really does play dice”. Hawking concluded his lecture: “Cosmology is a very exciting and active subject. We are getting close to answering the age old questions. Why are we here? Where did we come from?”
In the question time he was asked “We are starting to be able to control machines with our thoughts. Besides your wheelchair, what’s one thing you’d like to use that for?” Hawking replied: “What I would really like to control is not machines, but people”.
Editorial Comment: Hawking may be recruiting Einstein’s theories to explain the universe but Einstein’s most famous line is “God doesn’t play dice with the world”. (See Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man by William Hermanns, Branden Press, 1983.) If we really are just “quantum fluctuations” then the answer to the questions Where did we come from, and Why are we here, is that we came from nowhere for no reason.
Hawking may scoff at God preparing Hell, but Hell was not made for those who ask questions about the origin of life, the universe and everything! The Creator God has told us Hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41), who challenged God’s authority with a lie disguised as a question by asking “Did God really say …?” (Genesis 3:1). Hawking’s God-less theory on how the universe got here is in the same category, i.e. “Did God really say … ?” , because God has actually said what he did re the origin of the universe – read it in Genesis 1 and 2. Sadly our first parents believed the Devil’s lie, instead of the truth of God who also tells us He created a good world, now ruined by human sin, yet the Creator came as the Christ and paid the penalty for sin through His death on a cross, so no-one need fear Hell if they repent of their sin and follow Christ.
Apart from atheistic theories about the universe, Hawking’s other claim to fame is having a form of motor neurone disease. Thanks to modern medicine he has lived longer than most patients who suffer this paralysing disease, which means Hawking has been given more time to repent and acknowledge Christ as Creator and Saviour, otherwise Hawking will discover too late the Fatal Flaw in Atheism here. (Ref. cosmology, physics, astronomy, universe, cosmos)
Evidence News 24 April 2013