This week we heard the sad news that Professor Stephen Hawking has died. Media are full of praise for his achievements in his work in cosmology and for his life of survival against all medical odds. Besides his immense scientific reputation, he has achieved a degree of public recognition way beyond other scientists, including appearances in The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons and Futurama. There was much respect and affection in his public recognition, and an acceptance that because he was so brilliant we must accept his utterances, even if they sometimes strayed far from cosmology – indeed perhaps especially when they strayed, because then there might be a chance to understand what he was saying. All of this is well deserved, and as a physicist I stand in as much respect of him as anybody.
It does a disservice to his achievements, however, if we allow his pronouncements to become a new orthodoxy. He started his career in cosmology by challenging orthodoxy, thinking completely outside the box, and imagining unthinkable new physics. That is exactly how science progresses, and scientists will strenuously challenge his legacy to try to achieve what he, along with Isaac Newton and many other physicists, have attempted but not yet achieved: the unification of all forces into one theory. Scientific theories must always be challenged, extended, replaced and tested if progress is to be made, and the current understanding of Black Holes and the Big Bang are no exception.

Many will have heard his account of the two most valuable lessons he has left for his children:

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet; and never give up work, work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.”

While the first lesson is beautiful and a fitting epitaph for this great man, I would question the second lesson. I work really all that life is about? Is the life of a person who cannot work, or cannot find work, meaningless? Isn’t there more meaning in relationships, in love, in beauty, is aspiration, and in human kindness? I recall someone saying that on their deathbed nobody says “I wish I had worked more”, but far more say “I wish I had loved more”. So maybe this is a sad lesson from a man who looked too long at the stars.
Another announcement for which Hawking is famous, in the Grand Design, is that the Big Bang was the inevitable result of the laws of physics, and we do not need to invoke God to trigger the Big Bang. Many may hear this as saying that we do not need God, that the laws of physics explain everything, but that would be to give the statement authority way outside Hawking’s field of expertise. He may well be right that the known laws of physics can produce solutions that look like Big Bangs, but that then begs the question of where those laws of physics come from. Are those laws of physics replacing God? Perhaps rather those laws of physics are God. This is supported by Hawking’s earlier statement in A Brief History of Time, that “If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God.” He also said that “If you like, you can call the laws of science ‘God’, but it wouldn’t be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions” but he offers no basis for this conclusion about the nature of God, so this is at least open to challenge. Perhaps the laws of physics are one aspect, or incarnation, of God, while other aspects appear in a more personal knowledge of God.
So let us honour a great man who has challenged much and achieved great things, but let us value human lives not for how hard they worked, but for how they aspired and loved and helped others. And let us not understand science of any sort as replacing God, pushing him back into odd corners as a “God of the gaps”, but as part of the endless human endeavour to understand our world, our universe, our very selves as glimpses into the mind of God.

Guys, I wanted to introduce a new series of blogs that we are going to be unblushing over the next few weeks / months / years …
We have called this stuff ‘Life, the universe and everything else’. The flavour and focus of these blogs is how we can explore science and God without losing sight of either in the process!
I was at a Men’s event recently and bumped into a gentleman called Dr James Wallace-Hadrill and he shared with me some cool stuff about space and particle physics. I wish I could tell you more about it but I can’t so I thought it might be better for him to do it.
Enough from me, I want to introduce James to you, and this new blog section on the CVM website.
So, if you love science, and want to see how that love of science fuses with the creator who made the lot then read on!
If you have questions of suggestions for topics email in!

Forty years ago I was studying physics at Oxford, being taught to question everything and to place no value on theories and models of reality unless they made predictions that could be tested. My own world view was that Christianity was a benevolent way of life that could teach people to be nicer to each other in some sort of imitation of Jesus, but without any concern for God or eternity. I enjoyed attending traditional church services, and I thought I was a Christian.
Then a friend invited me to a public talk about relationships. I wasn’t sure how useful it would be, and I didn’t want to hear about the shallow sort of relationships I saw around me in the university. But it sounded a bit Christian which was promising, and I didn’t want to offend my friend, so I agreed. There I heard people talking about Jesus, God and eternity in ways I had never heard before, even during confirmation classes. Eternity was something we could experience now, God cares about us and loves us, and Jesus died for our sins, is alive now and wants to be our close friend. How come I had not been told any of this before?
And then the hook: along with this theory about Jesus came a prediction! Something that I could test, and if it failed the test then I could reject it. I wanted it to be true though, everything about it felt right. If I make a commitment to Jesus, turn away from my self-centred life and ask Jesus to enter my life and be my Lord, then he will come in and change me and never leave me. I knew it could not be a shallow test, I would have to really repent and commit myself.
So that evening I made the test, I prayed a heartfelt prayer of commitment, and I went to sleep. Would anything change? I doubted it, I even doubted that I would remember my prayer in the morning. When I woke I was just flooded with joy and excitement, and I realised that was the start of a new life with Jesus. This must be the Spirit giving me confirmation in my heart, and I had no doubt that the answer to the test was a resounding yes! I started meeting with Christian groups to learn more, and there was a huge amount to learn, but now this was not out of curiosity but out of passion.
And I found that my new faith provided what I had always missed in physics: in my physics I was being taught HOW the physical universe ticks, but now I was also learning WHY it ticks – that there is a purpose to our lives which is intimately bound up with God as the creator and sustainer of the universe working out His purposes. While people often assume that science and faith are in opposition, with any thought of God being reduced to filling in the gaps that science cannot explain, I was finding the exact opposite: my understanding of the physical universe was enriched and deepened by seeing the spiritual realities that underlie and drive the physical observables. I even found direct echoes of physical laws in the spiritual truths in the Bible, so that the physics became another way of glimpsing the nature of God.
I spent my twenties doing research in particle physics at CERN, and after postdoctoral research I moved out of academia into IT in industry. I have kept up my interest in physics since however, broadening into astronomy and cosmology, and all of it has enriched my understanding of God’s great creative power. I do have a feeling that the day may come when we find we run out of physical resources to answer the big questions in physics, and we need to turn to our understanding of God instead to answer those questions.
Image Credit: NASA