Many people believe that Stephen Hawkins is one of the most brilliant people on earth.  That is why it is fascinating how he displays his own version of circular reasoning:

“The role played by time at the beginning of the universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a Grand Designer, and revealing how the Universe created itself…Time itself must come to a stop.  You can’t get to a time before the big bang, because there was no time before the big bang.  We have finally found something that does not have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in.  For me, this means there is no possibility of a creator because there is no time for a creator to have existed.  Since time itself began at the moment of the Big Bang, it was an event that could not have been caused or created by anyone or anything…So when people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them the question itself makes no sense.  Time didn’t exist before the Big Bang, so there is no time for God to make the universe in.  It’s like asking for directions to the edge of the Earth.  The Earth is a sphere.  It does not have an edge, so looking for it is a futile exercise.”

In his desperate attempt to disprove the existence of God, the smartest man on earth has fallen into the trap of circular reasoning.  The reality is that even if one believes in the Big Bang, it does not solve the problem because something had to have existed or there is no explanation for the Big Bang itself.  It is ludicrous to argue that time did not exist before the Big Bang.  That is actually Hawkins coming up with nonsense to explain what he admitted he could not explain.  Actually, Hawkins himself made exactly that point in the following quote:

“Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations.  What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?  The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe.  Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

It is interesting and comforting to note that at the end of the day, all science really knows is that there are some questions for which science has no answer.  Those who choose to believe in God have a lot less difficulty in understanding the universe.  As to searching for the edge of the earth, that is actually quite easy.  You just need to look up.

TDM