Stephen Hawking says intelligent design of the universe is highly probable? Updated, yes a hoax

_{Denyse O'Leary

March 12, 2015

Cosmology, Intelligent Design, News}

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[Someone kindly tweeted: WDNR is satirical entertainment website & not a source of news –worldnewsdailyreport.com/disclaimer/ Back to work.]

And it isn’t even April 1? Ran March 8 at World News Daily:

The English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, surprised the scientific community last week when he announced during a speech at the University of Cambridge that he believed that “some form of intelligence” was actually behind the creation of the Universe.

Presenting himself before students at the University of Cambridge, the world-famous scientist declared that his years of research on the creation of the cosmos have led him to isolate a strange scientific factor which he says is in many ways contrary to the universal laws of physics.

Personal reasons seem to play a role.

Can’t find evidence it’s a hoax as yet. Watching. Breaking.

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Comments

News defends her journalist chops:
REC at 4: Those hedders don’t show the source is unreliable if those people really said that.
Say what? The other headlines were “Russian Federal Space Agency to Release Documents Proving US Moon Landings Never Occurred” “Former Beatle Ringo Starr Claims the “Real” Paul McCartney Died in 1966 and Was Replaced by Look-Alike” “North Carolina: 15 State Lottery Winners Given Lucky Numbers by Psychic Medium” Surely the satirical nature of the site is immediately obvious? Also, the photograph of Roger Penrose (!!!) captioned "John Bairns" should have been a tip-off.
Maybe Hawking will put out a correction if he did not in fact say it.
Why on earth would he bother? And you still think that maybe he said this? No-one with half a brain would find this story credible, even before reading the site's disclaimer "All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle." UD continues to be a truly awesome exposition of confirmation bias. Keep it up.DNA_Jock_{March 12, 2015
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"Belief is not necessary, it is a matter of logic, science, reason and common sense" Because an uncreated greater complexity having produced the complexity we see is perfectly logical and not special pleading at all. It really is just that simple. A designer would require a designer by the logic of 'complexity necessitates design' so all it's doing is moving the problem elsewhere. It no more solves it than saying aliens seeded earth. Well then where did the aliens come from? If you're saying that we don't have to address the origin of the designer then you're saying that complexity can exist without being accounted for. That makes ID self defeating special pleading.CHartsil_{March 12, 2015
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Well, basically, I had two problems to solve this morning. 1. Someone was posting filth to an old Yahoo group I once started, so I got a complaint. Trouble is, I no longer remember my ID for the group (which may be why some porno op stumbled on it.) Trouble is, can't figure out how to contact Yahoo about the problem without that ID. They sure don't make it easy. Not like one can just show a passport or anything. Then someone wrote to ask me if this Hawking story was true. Didn't think it likely. But figured, well, I have two problems to solve, one that can't be resolved by crowdsourcing (if I don't know the ID any more, probably no one else does either) and one that can. So thanks to all crowdsourcers for taking on the second problem. - O'Leary for NewsNews_{March 12, 2015
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To bad its fake. That would have been on par with Anthony Flew's conversion:
"I now believe that the universe was brought into existence by an infinite intelligence. I believe that the universe's intricate laws manifest what scientists have called the Mind of God. I believe that life and reproduction originate in a divine Source. Why do I believe this, given that I expounded and defended atheism for more than a half century? The short answer is this: this is the world picture, as I see it, that has emerged from modern science." Anthony Flew - world's leading intellectual atheist for most of his adult life until a few years shortly before his death The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel (Nov. 25, 2012) - video http://www.saddleback.com/mc/m/ee32d/
Of note, the closest, that I'm aware of, that Hawking has come to admitting the necessity of Design in the universe was with his caveat to Godel's incompleteness theorem (which he apparently subsequently forgot).
The nature and significance of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems – Princeton – 2006 Excerpt: ,,Stephen Hawking and Freeman Dyson, among others, have come to the conclusion that Gödel’s theorem implies that there can’t be a (mathematical) Theory of Everything.,, http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman/papers/Godel-IAS.pdf
The incompleteness theorem is extremely bad news for people who believe that there can be a purely mathematical ‘theory of everything’.
Kurt Gödel – Incompleteness Theorem – video https://vimeo.com/92387853 Godel and Physics – John D. Barrow Excerpt (page 5-6): “Clearly then no scientific cosmology, which of necessity must be highly mathematical, can have its proof of consistency within itself as far as mathematics go. In absence of such consistency, all mathematical models, all theories of elementary particles, including the theory of quarks and gluons…fall inherently short of being that theory which shows in virtue of its a priori truth that the world can only be what it is and nothing else. This is true even if the theory happened to account for perfect accuracy for all phenomena of the physical world known at a particular time.” Stanley Jaki – Cosmos and Creator – 1980, pg. 49
Moreover, incompleteness also adds strong support to the fact that man has a transcendent component to his being that is able to transcend the physical limitations of his body (something that Hawking, as a paraplegic, should resonate with, but apparently hasn't):
Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing – Incompleteness Theorem and Human Intuition – video https://vimeo.com/92387854 “Either mathematics is too big for the human mind or the human mind is more than a machine” Kurt Gödel "Nothing in evolution can account for the soul of man. The difference between man and the other animals is unbridgeable. Mathematics is alone sufficient to prove in man the possession of a faculty unexistent in other creatures. Then you have music and the artistic faculty. No, the soul was a separate creation." Alfred Russell Wallace, New Thoughts on Evolution, 1910 Mathematics and Physics – A Happy Coincidence? – William Lane Craig – video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF25AA4dgGg 1. If God did not exist the applicability of mathematics would be a happy coincidence. 2. The applicability of mathematics is not a happy coincidence. 3. Therefore, God exists.
also of note: Here is an excerpt of an article, (that is well worth reading in full), in which Dr. Gordon exposes Stephen Hawking’s metaphysical ignorance for thinking that mathematical description and agent causality are the same thing.
BRUCE GORDON: Hawking’s irrational arguments – October 2010 Excerpt: ,,,The physical universe is causally incomplete and therefore neither self-originating nor self-sustaining. The world of space, time, matter and energy is dependent on a reality that transcends space, time, matter and energy. This transcendent reality cannot merely be a Platonic realm of mathematical descriptions, for such things are causally inert abstract entities that do not affect the material world,,, Rather, the transcendent reality on which our universe depends must be something that can exhibit agency – a mind that can choose among the infinite variety of mathematical descriptions and bring into existence a reality that corresponds to a consistent subset of them. This is what “breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe.” Anything else invokes random miracles as an explanatory principle and spells the end of scientific rationality.,,, Universes do not “spontaneously create” on the basis of abstract mathematical descriptions, nor does the fantasy of a limitless multiverse trump the explanatory power of transcendent intelligent design. What Mr. Hawking’s contrary assertions show is that mathematical savants can sometimes be metaphysical simpletons. Caveat emptor. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/1/hawking-irrational-arguments/
bornagain77_{March 12, 2015
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humbled @ 10
Belief is not necessary, it is a matter of logic, science, reason and common sense ;)
humbled,it's fake news.Me_Think_{March 12, 2015
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..."he believed that “some form of intelligence” was actually behind the creation of the Universe." Belief is not necessary, it is a matter of logic, science, reason and common sense ;)humbled_{March 12, 2015
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Shows how much background they do before posting something they want to believe.CHartsil_{March 12, 2015
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Some journalistic skills, News! Four days isn't long enough to recognise an obvious hoax? A speedy retraction is in order.Piotr_{March 12, 2015
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Well, some of us wondered why the story didn't get more traction before now, and crowdsourcing is the fastest way to find out in such cases. REC at 4: Those hedders don't show the source is unreliable if those people really said that. Have you been following the US gov e-mail scandals? Thanks re John Bairns. We'll see what else turns up. Maybe Hawking will put out a correction if he did not in fact say it. No good this stuff hanging around for years.News_{March 12, 2015
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It is a spoof. Try Google. Prof. Paul Alexander is the head of the astrophysics group at Cambridgeturell_{March 12, 2015
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Does Stephen Hawking have a living brother (cited in the linked)? It looks like perhaps his adopted brother passed away in 2003.daveS_{March 12, 2015
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Do News and the UD community believe that "World News Daily Report" is a source worth reprinting? Other headlines: "Russian Federal Space Agency to Release Documents Proving US Moon Landings Never Occurred" "Former Beatle Ringo Starr Claims the “Real” Paul McCartney Died in 1966 and Was Replaced by Look-Alike" "North Carolina: 15 State Lottery Winners Given Lucky Numbers by Psychic Medium" News could try to evaluate the story. Three google searches regarding one quote reveal there is apparently no John Bairns at Cambridge, there is no "Department of Astrophysics" but rather the Cavendish Astrophysics group, and its head is Prof. Paul Alexander. http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/people-contacts/faculty-and-emeritus/REC_{March 12, 2015
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He learned something from Newton after all...Joe_{March 12, 2015
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Is there a vid or a definite transcript?kairosfocus_{March 12, 2015
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WowSilver Asiatic_{March 12, 2015
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