by Angela K. DurdenStephen Hawking is dead.
The man was a theoretical physicist. I bring this up because I want to get it out of the way that the man was brilliant. Okay. We all know that to explain, predict, and rationalize natural phenomena, Hawking theorized using mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems and that is not something your everyday person can do.
Further ramming home the point how smart he is, upon his death headlines used words such as renowned, famed, and visionary. We know he had a sense of humor. He was a character on The Simpson's. The Big Bang's title characters worshiped him; the show's writers built some humorous episodes around him. They were funny. I laughed.
10 million copies of Hawking's book, "A Brief History of Time", were sold. Somebody had to buy them. I found a copy of his book at my local Goodwill store where I always go looking for first editions. Everybody knows that when Granny finally dies, nobody is going through her books. So they get boxed up and donated.
Upon first reading Hawking's book, and not getting anything out of it, I started reading it again.
"Geez, Angie Belle," I said to myself, "this guy must be super smart because you, as The Most Brilliant Woman in the World, are not understanding it even though you've given it quite some many hours of reading, re-reading, note-taking, and research. Could it be this Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is smarter than you? Say it isn't so!"
You see, I was expecting a brilliant read. One that helped the layman understand the underlying scientific concepts of space, time, blah, blah, blah. Instead all I got was a dud. Badly written and edited. Meandering and convoluted. I am not alone in my opinion.
And he sold 10 million of these? God help all us authors...except —
Just how brilliant can a man be who denies a creator?
For a man who used computers that did not simply evolve into being. Who employed vehicles, electricity, technology, the banking system, and the National Healthcare Service. Man-made systems, each and every one.
For a man whose livelihood depended upon the constancy of the natural laws in the physical world around him to deny the existence of the Creator of systems far more complicated than any made by humans, then such a man is a hypocrite as he himself said, "For a scientist, cherry picking evidence is unacceptable."
Yet that is exactly what he did. He cherry picked evidence when it came to having to admit to an intelligent power higher than himself. He gave chance and randomness the seat of honor at the table.
Just imagine it. A man who celebrates thought. A man with vision. A man who says he is searching for the why and how and misses the biggest cause in the universe.
Still, on some level he must have believed in the Almighty. If one doesn't believe, why does one constantly try to disprove He exists? Or was Hawking's ego just that big?
