As a person who fears God and Death, Stephen Hawking's interview in 'The Guardian' last week frightened me. He says, "A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death". Death for me is a fascinating subject. Its usually unpredictable and terrifying nature has been the symbol for a living being's misery, misfortune and is another evidence hanging on the delicate balance of the question, "Does God exist". We all fear death, we might at times argue that we don't but on the insides we're silently hoping that Death doesn't find us soon. The reason why we fear Death is pretty obvious, we're attached to the 'world', we're attached to our little belongings and we're attached to people whom we don't want to leave. As kids most of us were afraid of the dark because we didn't know what was ahead of us. We were afraid of those ghosts whose existence was strengthened by those stories told to us everyday. We were afraid of the pain that the darkness might bring, we could've stepped on a mousetrap for all we know. We are still afraid of that darkness and its new name is Death. I believe that Death is like those moments in the dark room, except that there's no exit this time and there's no light. One day, we wake up and we just find ourselves trapped in darkness, without a soul around. We can't hear ourselves and we can't see ourselves. Point is, in the darkness we wouldn't even know whether we can see or not. Our past days on the planet might remind us about a lot of things, we might be in despair, or, wait, we might not know anything at all. Who said that we can think after Death? Do we remember anything about our birth? No! Death too must be the same, or is it not?

Everything in nature has a counter balance, there's light for darkness, there's day after night, there's a rainy season after a scorching summer and similarly there's life and death (Oh! I almost forgot, there's a male and a female too, the exact opposites but the perfect couple). One which we think brings happiness and the other which we feel brings dread. So nature has these interesting opposite poles, if we don't remember anything before we were born, then according to nature's pattern we should remember everything after our death. I think life's our beautiful curse and death is our terrifying blessing. People fear the pain before their death, but do you remember the way you cried when the doctor cut your umbilical cord? You don't! But didn't you cry like it was the end of the world back then? You did. But you don't remember do you? No. The End will be the same, but this time, in all probability you will remember the times you've cried.

Let me get back to Hawking. He's a great scientist and I acknowledge that but when it comes to philosophy and life, he's the same as you and me. He said, "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark" . Even though he used computers as a metaphor here to drive home a point, it becomes an example of how flawed his theory is. Scientists even after decades of experience in computers have yet been unable to build a computer which understands and replicates the basic human emotions. Millions of lines of code couldn't explain the feeling of darkness to a computer. A computer is just a machine and it is not expected to work like a human and neither can it be one no matter how developed it is. At least let's assume that Hawking's assumption is true, forty years back if a computer was dead, then it meant that it was proper dead. Now, there's internet, there's cloud computing, there's remote access, there is back up. If a computer dies, there are a zillion ways of accessing the data in it back. Is it same with our brain? Obviously not! If we made a computer, then who made our brains? "Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in,", is what Hawking assumes our existence on earth to be. A chance. It's funny to see that Hawking uses words which further point towards the existence of God.

God is like those assumptions we take when we solve those mathematical problems, we don't know whether He exists or not but what we do know is that if we consider that He exists then the problem can be solved. God is a value, you can't describe him in an equation or encapsulate his powers in a best selling book. God is just an infinite variable and religion is its unit.


In his bestselling 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking drew on the device so beloved of Einstein, when he described what it would mean for scientists to develop a "theory of everything" – a set of equations that described every particle and force in the entire universe. "It would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God"


Hawking talks about a set of equations, and also states that the purpose for those equations is to see from the eyes of God. The reason why these equations would be impossible to formulate is simple, God is not visible! We are still primitive beings trying to mime a superior forces' actions. God is not like a cadaver which can be dissected and understood. In fact God is just a name we've given to the millions of assumptions which we make. God is the answer to those questions for which we don't have an answer. God is just a name, and religion gives his form, so that we can relate to Him easily. Otherwise, God's just a supernatural power, he's not human and hence all our laws and logics don't apply to him. Years of research spent on trying to find God will be just a futile attempt to satisfy our egos. Instead, if we just sit back and accept that there's a supernatural force, believe me, you'll find peace. I repeat, it's the force which is greater, not its units.


And to conclude, I'd just say Hawking is trying to cover his failure of not being able to find God just like a kid who fails in an exam and asserts that everyone else failed in his class. That's basic human psychology isn't it?

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