Stephen Hawking

* * *

Born  |  January 8, 1942
Oxford
Died  |  March 14, 2018
Cambridge

Stephen William Hawking (January 8, 1942 – March 14, 2018) was a British physicist and author. Stephen Hawking was an atheist (see: Celebrity atheists).[1]

Despite suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis for most of his adult life, he wrote multiple books popularizing science. His most famous books are A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes, The Universe in a Nutshell and The Grand Design, in which he argues against the idea of the need for a Creator.[2]

Unrestrained by political correctness, Hawking observed that "[t]he absence of event horizons mean that there are no black holes."[3] Previously, Hawking theorized that information can escape from a black hole in the form of Hawking Radiation wherein virtual dual particles will came close to the Event Horizon of a black hole. One half of the virtual dual particle will escape the pull of gravity, taking with it the information of the second virtual particle. It is thought that this eventually will cause the evaporation of the black hole.[4] He is also credited with advancing the understandings of black holes. From 1979 until his retirement in 2009, Hawking was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a post once held by Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac.[5]

Stephen Hawking combines his research with family life and acts to popularize science. He has appeared on The Simpsons and Star Trek: The Next Generation TV shows and contributed vocals through his speech synthesizer to the Pink Floyd album The Division Bell on the track "Keep Talking".

As an atheist,[6] he is known for his anti-Heaven beliefs.

> “I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first,” he told the Guardian newspaper. “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.”[7]

Hawking has been married twice.[8] He was married to his first wife, Jane, for more than 25 years; the couple has three children - Robert, Tim and Lucy. His second marriage to Elaine Mason lasted eleven years, and ended in 2006 amid claims by his caretakers that she had physically abused him.[9]

Hawking died on March 14, 2018, in Cambridge, England at age 76.[10]

## See also[edit]

* Atheism and the origin of the universe

## References[edit]

1. ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1387478/Stephen-Hawking-Heaven-fairy-story-people-afraid-dark.html
2. ↑ https://www.theblaze.com/stories/hawking-says-god-not-needed-for-creation/
3. ↑ https://arxiv.org/pdf/1401.5761v1.pdf (p.3)
4. ↑ http://library.thinkquest.org/C007571/english/advance/english.htm
5. ↑ Stephen W. Hawking's webpages
6. ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1387478/Stephen-Hawking-Heaven-fairy-story-people-afraid-dark.html
7. ↑ [1]
8. ↑ Hawking and second wife agree to divorce
9. ↑ Hawking's nurse reveals why she is not surprised his marriage is over October 20, 2006, dailymail.co.uk, retrieved August 30, 2012
10. ↑ Multiple references:
* Physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76. The Washington Times (from the Associated Press). March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
* Stephen Hawking, famed physicist, dead at 76. Fox News. March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
* Adelmann, Bob (March 14, 2018). Atheist Stephen Hawking Meets His Maker at Age 76. The New American. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
* Faulkner, Danny R. (March 14, 2018). Stephen Hawking 1942–2018. Answers in Genesis. Retrieved March 14, 2018.

## External links[edit]

* Creation Ministries International, Hawking atheopathy: Famous physicist goes beyond the evidence