Physicist Stephen Hawking has dismissed religion once again as he deemed heaven a "fairy story" aimed at appeasing those afraid of death.
The author of 1988 international best-seller "A Brief History of Time" said in an interview with The Guardian that his views were partly influenced by his battle with motor neuron disease.
"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he told the newspaper in an interview published on Monday.
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
Hawking's stance on religion has hardened since the publishing of his seminal work.
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 2010 book, "The Grand Design" 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.
Since 1974, the scientist has worked on marrying the two cornerstones of modern physics -- Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which concerns gravity and large-scale phenomena, and quantum theory, which covers subatomic particles.
IMO, Religion is nothing more than a control system to keep the sheeple on the reservation......Stephen Hawking agrees. Not bad company to have on an idea.
This garbage has been posted before. & actually, the "religion is a control mechanism" arguement originated & was propagated by your controllers, who hate God & morality. You felll for their tripe.But there is still time to seek truth.
Coming from Hawking I wouldn't call it garbage. If you know of another Human who has a better understanding out our world and universe please tell us who he is.
The fact that you disagree with Hawking doesn't make your "faith based" ideas valid vs Hawking's fact based ideas.
(contd from below), rape, steal, lie, etc serves no 'controlling' purpose, but rather benefits all the world.
Actually I don't even know who Hawking is.The notion that religion (moral law) is to "control the masses" is propogated by the very elite tyrants who we oppose & who seek to destroy goodness,& liberty.Encouraging people to love one another & not murder,