Guest commentary: Stephen Hawking, Religion, and the Bus

I am delighted to include a guest commentary--a welcome relief, I'm sure, to readers of my blogging. Ken is British, a WWII vet, former nuclear engineer, and wise observer and commentator--certainly someone deserving of being called cool-old-tech. Comments are welcome and can be attached below or sent to Ken via me at kepad123@aol.com. Diana


I spend much of my time these days trawling the Internet for items that interest me.

Today I read on several web sites that Stephen Hawking has dropped his latest bomb. He has declared that God had no part in the creation of the universe. Some statement eh? and one that is likely to cause more than the occasion murmur within the walls of The Vatican, as well as in a few other places. Of course this was no great surprise to me because I came to this conclusion many moons ago, and I was not a Cambridge scholar.

The statement has such profound and far reaching significance that it totally upsets the apple cart onto the very basis of religion, to such an extent as identifying all brands of religion as being baseless and by doing so puts at risk the employment of all those in the religious community or should I say industry?

Just think, can we now expect to see Rome and the C of E having closing down sales? Expiry of lease? I wonder: Will Hawking now be asked to return the medal he was recently awarded by Obama ? and will Israel now have to change its tune as will Mecca? and will the US mint have to go into overtime to strike new coins? – Should generate some interesting times .

I was writing to a long-standing friend the other day and was pleasantly surprised to receive a very chatty reply in which he touched on our similar ages and the very cynical attitude he has to religion. In fact we seem to have identical views as atheists /agnostics etc., altho in my case I said that I leave the door open just a crack in the unlikely case of someone offering a reasonable argument against. The crack was merely an extension of my caution as a life long engineer to avoid burning ones bridges and regretting it later.

He and the few remaining colleagues that have have at least one thing in common with me. We all have little or no time for the current way of life. It has been usurped by the kids and they have neither the inclination or experience to run it, so we can only blame ourselves. With the end of WW11 we were so exhausted with 5 years of effort and deprivation, that we sat back, believed that it was all over and everything would be fine from now on. How wrong we were, our lack of care created a vacuum and the kids ( aka baby Boomers ) moved in to occupy the space, and the situation is now beyond recovery. The new deity was as obsessed with the new stately pleasure dome as was Kubla Khan, and there was no shortage of help from such as the Beatles of the 50s right up to the Jacksons of recent times

During the first few months of WW11 Neville Chamberlain said when referring to the stalemate in 1940, “Hitler has missed the bus.“ Well, I can modify that to suit myself and say that when referring to the current and dismal situation that Britain and most of the world is in, that I did not miss my bus because I was on it. I got off, way back now after I decided its destination was no longer of interest to me and have little intention of re-boarding it in this world, and I know of no one of my years who thinks otherwise.

However, now that Hawking has kicked my foot from the door, I must say that I am delighted to find someone of academic substance to give credence to my rebellious views, as I have no doubt many other free thinking persons are when getting support from such a quarter. Good for you Stephen!.