IDEOLOGY ON TRIAL
(In response to Oday Shahin’s Sept. 29 “Atheism on trial.”)
Intellectual travesty abounds in Oday Shahin's article critiquing Stephen Hawking's new book, and in his subsequent attempts to prove a divine creator. This isn't surprising, however, as it does not seem like Oday actually took the time to read the book.
Oday says that Hawking "bleeds arrogance with atheist philosophy sprinkled with some science" when Hawking says the universe can create itself from nothing.
Hawking is saying that causal quantum fluctuations are a sufficient explanation for the origin of the Big Bang — a view compatible with established science. He is not saying that literally nothing existed before or outside of the Big Bang, only that a supernatural explanation is unnecessary.
Quantum physics is no easy subject, however. Perhaps more egregious are the arguments that follow. Oday says that even if science can determine how something happened, such as how the Big Bang could occur from quantum fluctuations, then God could still be one step back causing it to happen.
This is a perfect example of the “God of the gaps:” people once thought the planets were pulled around by angels until we advanced astronomy; people thought “organic” matter was infused with mysterious life essence until chemistry proved otherwise; people thought humans were divinely created in the image of God until we discovered evolution; and people thought the known universe was created as is until we discovered the Big Bang.
He even goes as far as to say that God, “has the ability to create the universe in a way where empirical evidence will not trail back to him.” This sort of argument can be used to justify anything; magical undetectable and invisible faeries could be pulling the planets around and we'd never know.
To my mind, Oday is the one arrogantly flaunting absolute knowledge, not Hawking.
Andy Diamos
Graduate Student
