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originally posted by: Blue Shift
originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Brilliant, yes, but 'most brilliant of all time'? I would respectfully and heartily disagree.
The world is full of geniuses these days, mostly because there are so many more people who know how to read and write and post stuff on the Internet. Back in the long time gone, humanity only had a few pop up every once in a while. Just enough to keep us moving forward a little.
I suspect that the most brilliant human of all time is unknown, and died or was killed when they were young. Transcendental brilliance and humanity don't mix well.
originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
And a word about Hawking and his alleged belief in God or lack thereof...
What Hawking's spiritual beliefs were matters little in judging his accomplishments as a theoretical physicist. In fact, I would argue that a strong religious belief would bias objective judgement in the field of Theoretical Physics, quite heavily actually...even to the point of loss of credibility. One only needs to look at the great Astronomers in history to bear out this fact beyond a shadow of a doubt. Copernicus was really the first astronomer to have the courage to present a heliocentric model of the solar system, which greatly angered the 'Church' virtually to the point of branding Copernicus a heretic. Prior to Copernicus astronomers went to extraordinary lengths to maintain the geocentric model of the solar system...almost laughable lengths, if they weren't so impressive in their own right. Even though many before Copernicus knew something was wrong they were blinded (either by fear or by faith) from seeing and presenting the truth.
Additionally, there is a huge difference between believing in God and believing in a 'church' or organized religion. Hawking was never really clear on what it was he didn't believe in this regard. In fact, I would argue Hawking was attempting to be politically correct with his pronouncements about faith so as not to single out a certain religion or 'church', so he just lumped them all together and said he didn't believe. I would posit he meant more that he didn't believe in organized religion vs. the notion he didn't believe in a supreme being / intelligence at all.
Devine intervention would be an 'easy-out' and a distraction in the physics of the Universe. It would be akin to what I call an "FM circuit" in much of the physics we do at work (for example). (it's a running joke). "The goes-inta connects to the goes-outta by means of a black box, and in between is where the 'FM' circuit happens!" (Note - "FM" stands for 'F'n Magic', in case you didn't already figure that out).
Quite candidly, I would have been disappointed if Hawking had ever made some type of a strong statement about belief in religion.
Something to consider.
Agree
originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: RP2SticksOfDynamite
He disrespects a great man who just passed, and brought more to the world than his sorry butt could even conceive.
originally posted by: burgerbuddy
Probably aborted 1000 times a year.
Ya think? or only stupid people get ripped apart before they are born?
originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
I notice a lot of people still calling him 'Hawkins'
Btw, Freeman Dyson seems to be a bit more honest about these subjects than the Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, Lawrence Krauss, etc. clique (just listing the celebrity or 'rockstar' physicists this time).
Please expand on your comment, don't leave such a contentious throw-away line dangling without explaining what you mean.