Because Stephen Hawking says so?

The noted British scientist Stephen Hawking, arguably the smartest man living today, has left me baffled and not a little peeved.

In advance of his latest book, The Grand Design, Hawking is now quoted by the Associated Press as saying God did not create the universe and that the Big Bang is completely logical as a starting point for everything in existence. A new set of theories makes a creator of the universe redundant, he says:

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," Hawking writes.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

So, um, where did the law of gravity come from? And how exactly is it again that something can come out of nothing? How does nothing have enough substance innately to generate something? And how does gravity exclusive of any other contributor or contributing factor take nothing and form it into something? And how is it that mere human theory -- by its very nature apt to change and morph -- can be deemed the final word?

Far be it from me, a lowly homeschooling mother of four with a bachelor's degree in, of all things pedestrian, journalism to go up against someone like Mr. Hawking. I'd never want to pick a fight with a mind like that. And, yes, I know that our country's president during his campaign duly noted the pathetic among us who prefer to "cling" to our guns and our religion. Yes, yes, I'm among the pathetic who, while I don't work a firearm, do tend to turn towards a higher power for answers, help, and reassurance. I'm pathetic in this sense and I'm fine with it.

But e'en in my humble circumstances, steeped as I am in my Christian mythology so-called, I do wonder about the aforementioned questions and whether they are answered in his book.


"For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 2:1

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1