Big Bang On Religion

There has been recent news about Stephen Hawking making the claim that it was not God’s doing that created the Big Bang. He believes that since gravity exists, it is a perfectly good cause for the creation of the universe from nothing. Now, I’m not going to sit here and try and argue against one of the most prominent astrophysicists of our time, but I can’t say that he’s necessarily right.

First, I’d like to remark on those of faith who would say that the universe necessarily had to be created by someone of a greater power. If it is your faith that this be true, then that is perfectly fine in my book. I personally am skeptical of either answer. It’s really impossible to prove, so believing either side is still a matter of faith.

What I wanted to talk about, though, is the idea of infinity. Those of faith believe God is infinite in time, space, and knowledge. When asked how this could be possible, the response is usually that God is a mystery that we can’t even begin to comprehend, and should we come close to understanding, how head’s would explode like a watermelon strapped with C4. Why, then, is it impossible to accept that the universe could possibly be infinite in time. If it’s ok to accept that nothing created God, then why isn’t it acceptable that nothing created the universe? It’s an insanely incomprehensible concept either way, but this is the reason why I would accept both sides of the argument.

Aside from that, there was commentary about the Stephen Hawking statement that said that it was a dangerous statement to make. The commentator claimed that Hawking was forcing people to make a choice between religion and science, in which case most people would pick religion. That statement really rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t see it as forcing a choice at all. There is always a compromise to be made between the two. The compromise has over the years shifted drastically toward the side of science, but there is still plenty of give and take to be had. One of my coworkers made a good comment on this when we were discussing it. He said that religion and science don’t necessarily even exist in the same realm. They are tools to explain different things and don’t actually intersect a lot of the time.