Presentation 1 (Summary)

Brief Answers to the Big Questions – Stephen Hawking

- Ryan Savio Rodrigues (202027)

Introduction

This assignment is based on the book, “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” written by
Stephen Hawking one of the most brilliant minds of the century. The author attempts to answer
several questions through this fine piece of writing. It is scientific in nature but it is written in a
lay person’s language. This assignment focuses on three basic questions namely; Is there a God?
How did it all begin? and What is inside a Black hole? At the outset let me answer a rather
important question as to why are we asking such questions? Firstly, everyone is looking for
answers; no longer can we give yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems. Secondly, every
human person is searching for meaning; seekers are growing curious, continuous evolution
taking place. Besides in the words of Teilhard de Chardin, “Matter is truly becoming ‘conscious’
of itself.” Thirdly, there is a drastic change in the picture of the universe at least in the last fifty
years. And finally, Science and Technological advancement is providing answers to these
Questions that have been long bothering the human mind. This assignment will answer three
such questions mentioned above after which it will offer a few critical remarks and a brief
conclusion.

Is there a God?

At the outset let me confess, “Science is answering questions that strictly come under the
preview of Religion.” The interesting thing is that Science seems to provide better and more
consistent answers. We too as human beings are trying to find a rational explanation to the vast
expanse of the universe around us. The universe is a machine governed by principles or laws.
That seems to be an intelligible explanation. These laws can be understood by the human mind
because they are universal, they are fixed, they cannot be broken and they help us make sense of
this vast expanse. The author says, if we say that “God is the Laws of Nature” then soon we will
know the mind of God completely. Besides since the laws of nature cannot be broken, there will
be no freedom. How can we call someone as God, the one whose mind is known completely by
human beings, who is himself not free? What exists in the universe comprises of Mass, Energy
and Space and all this came from the Big Bang. Further, “Did God create the energy in the
Space?” The author answers in the negative. He explains this with the imagery of making a hill
on the plain. In order to do that we need to take out mud from somewhere else and put it in here.
This is how the universe works; with positive and negative energies. Hence, this adds up to
nothing. Therefore his thesis, “The universe is the ultimate free lunch.” Next then is another
question, “Do we need a God to set up the Big Bang? The answer to this too is ‘No.’ we can rely
on the principle of Cause and Effect. This is explained with another example. How does a river
get formed? There is rain and there is the heat of the sun, there is a condensation process that
accompanies it. There is vapour that is formed for the rain, this is due to the result of the energy
that exists in the cosmos and this ultimately takes us to the Big Bang. What is the end then, if this
is the beginning? The answer to this question is in the key words ‘Black holes.’ These are
collapsed Stars. Time does not exist in them. They are small and dense ones. The final nail in the
coffin to this question is expressing that there is no heaven or after life. All this is just wishful
thinking. All that we know and are certain about is just Science. If we call these laws of nature
which is Science as God then God is not ‘Personal.’

How did it all begin?

There exist several creation myths like the Sumerio-Akadian myth from the epics Gilgamesh
and Enuma Elish in the Near Eastern Traditions which have narrated creation stories which are
adopted and adapted and looked at from the eyes of faith for a believing community as they form
the initial chapters of Genesis. Everyone is busying themselves with the important questions of
life, “Where did we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here? Did universe have a
beginning? Are we talking about an Infinite past and / or an unimaginable and scary future? One
thing is certain, as the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus has rightly said, everything is in a flux,
everything is changing, and change is the only permanent thing. Evidences prove this, eg: In
1920 a 100 inch Hubble’s Telescope observed some changes and found answers. The universe is
expanding and moving away, farther and farther from us. The Steady State Theory was the one
that proposed this. Besides in 1927 we formed the Principle of Uncertainty which says that it is
impossible to determine the position and momentum of a particle at a given point in time.
Stephen hawking comes up with his famous “No boundary theory.” He proposes a super
abundance of histories of the Universe. He believes in multiple universes. The Higgs Boson
termed as the ‘God Particle’ is yet another step towards Super-asymmetry. Scientists are trying
to find one thing that can explain everything.

What is inside a Black Hole?

We are attempting the third question at hand, namely; what is inside a black hole? In
1783, John Michell had discovered dark stars what we call black holes today. They have
enormous force of gravity in them that lead to attraction. So much so that it pulls everything
inside and it does not even let light come out. An interesting imagery to understand this is the
Niagara Falls. If we haven’t yet reacged the edge and are on the top, we can keep paddling up
and thus save ourselves but no sooner we reach the edge, we will helplessly fall in as things are
beyond our control. In a black hole the space time continuum or curve is a flat one. These
collapsed stars can’t give us anything except that they have a Mass, a Charge and an angular
momentum.

Critical Remarks

We have embarked upon the quest for answers to the ultimate questions of life. The
author posits that a set of combined laws can explain everything in the universe. As argued
above, ‘The Universe is an ultimate free Lunch.’ We don’t need a God. However, I want to differ
with the authors opinion to some extent. Everything is a gratuitous gift from God. St Ignatius
says, ‘God gives us gifts, God is present in those gifts, God is labouring in those gifts and
everything finally takes us back to God.’ We need to look at the arguments above from this
perspective and think again. Besides, Laws only describe, they don’t create anything. The whole
theory of something comes ‘out of nothing’ has a Logic problem. It is against laws of
thermodynamics itself. Finally the meaning of God as understood as a semantic being has a
greater meaning for the people of faith and they deal with it at a different realm.

Conclusion

Science does not need religion. Neither does religion need science. But human beings
need both. There are significant areas to explore in both these realms. We need to constantly
engage in dialogue. That is the way forward. We can’t be in a state of denial. There is physical
reality that is observable in front of us but there is equally a realm of God experience that can’t
be ignored.