m00ner

So, Stephen Hawking, the smartest man on the face of the planet, is theist (mostly Christianity, I believe). Now, I don't know about you guys, but if the smartest man on the planet believes something, shouldn't we believe that, too?

Amaranth

Fallacy of false authority - Hawking is not a expert of theology. Trusting someone with a high IQ to think for you, dependant only on that fact, is foolish. Should I start wearing clothes similar to Dr. Hawking, as he would obviously know better than I what is best? What is Dr. Hawkings musical preference? Also, I wonder at his thoughts concerning genetics and the cure for cancer.

This is all besides the point of "which god", and whether or not the good doctor has submitted his deity hypothesis for review by his peers, as is expected of every scientific study.

Amaranth

Grad Student Humanist

Even if he was an expert in theology-- and there are certainly thousands of those in the world-- there's no reason to accept his belief in God, and certainly not the Xtian God, unless he is able to provide rational evidence for his claim.

Since nobody is able to offer rational evidence that proves God's existence then nobody's authority on the matter is beyond question.

lpetrich

Where did you find that out?

And please don't lead the rest of us on a wild goose chase or give us a big runaround.

His comments suggest that he speaks of god in a rather hypothetical fashion, that he is at most a deist.

Einstein, his predecessor , was something like that, it must be said.

mike_decock

Amaranth already pointed out the fallacy of false authority.

I don't think you could really classify Hawking as theist, and definitely not as a Christian:

Celebrity Atheist List

Christianity is all about believing in a "personal God."

Hawking rejects the label of "atheist", but that doesn't mean he's a theist. He could either be a deist or a weak atheist/agnostic who doesn't want to be stuck with the stigma of the atheist label for political reasons.

-Mike...

missus_gumby

Do you have any references for this claim? As far as I can tell, Hawking pretty much dismisses any need for a creator god.

Martin

MortalWombat

Here is another quote from one of his public lectures:

Quote taken from his own website

So we have two direct quotations so far in this thread from Hawking indicating:

1)Lack in the belief in a personal god and
2)Lack in the belief in an intervening god.

Both of these indicate at the very most, he is a deist, and certainly hasn't indicated his belief in anything resembling Christianity (which entails, among other things, belief in a personal, intervening god).

Sci_Fidelity

He has also said that when referring to "god", he is really using a metaphor for the laws of the universe, although I can't find the quote now-

southernhybrid

I've read this quote also. I have never seen evidence that Hawking is a theist in any traditional sense of the word.


To answer the original question. No, just because one of the smartest men on the planet believes something, that doesn't mean we should be ditto heads and accept it. Just because I'm not even in the same ballpark as the smartest people on the planet doesn't mean that I don't have some bitchin' critical thinking skills. I like to come to my own conclusions about just about everything. A lot of extremely intelligent people have been wrong about a lot of things.

schu

The people responding to this thread seem to have been m00ned by a troll.