Rev. Graham Shares 1 Question He Would Have Asked Stephen Hawking, in 1 Hour Gets 5,000 Shares
Christian evangelist Franklin Graham wished he could have asked world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking one question before his death on Wednesday at 76 regarding the existence of God.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Graham shared an article from USA Today titled, “Heaven ‘is a fairy story’: This is what Stephen Hawking says happens when people die.”
In the piece, Hawking, who suffered from motor neuron disease since the age of 21, is quoted from a 2011 interview saying, “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 continued, “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.”
In response, Graham wrote, “I wish I could have asked Mr. Hawking who he thought designed the human brain.”
He explained that Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard have created wonderful computers over the years, but nothing comes close to the capabilities of the human mind.
“Who do you think designed the human brain?” the evangelist queried. “The Master Designer–God Himself. I wish Stephen Hawking could have seen the simple truth that God is the Creator of the universe he loved to study and everything in it.”
Graham went on to quote scripture from the biblical book of Nehemiah which says God made the heavens, the heavenly host, the earth, and the seas and all that is in them.
“You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You,” the Bible says.
The Guardian reported that Hawking in his 2010 book “The Grand Design,” co-authored with Leonard Mlodinow, contended that the creation of the universe could be explained without God.
“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” the two wrote. “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
Hawking and Mlodinow put forth the “M-theory,” which stands for “master, miracle, or mystery.”
They concede, “Our universe and its laws appear to have a design that both is tailor-made to support us and, if we are to exist, leaves little room for alternation…That is not easily explained, and raises the natural question of why it is that way.”
For the physicists, the answer to the question lies in an unimaginably large number of different universes, with everything coming together to support life in this one, on earth.
Hawking and Mlodinow contended that M-theory is the unifying theory of physics the 20th century’s most celebrated physicist Albert Einstein sought to find.
Einstein — who was born on the same date Hawking died, Mar. 14 — did not believe in a personal God, but contended the universe’s design reflected a creator.
“Everyone who is seriously committed to the cultivation of science becomes convinced that in all the laws of the universe is manifest a spirit vastly superior to man, and to which we with our powers must feel humble,” he said.
The scientist also is recorded saying, “There is harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, yet there are people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me to support such views.”
Graham’s Facebook post had been shared over 17,000 times as of the writing of this article.
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