2:30pm Saturday 4th September 2010
By David Wiles
CHURCH ministers in the town have spoken out about Stephen Hawking’s claims that God did not create the universe.
In his new book, The Grand Design, Professor Hawking says the laws of physics alone are responsible for creation and denies the existence of any higher being.
The book, co-written by American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos.
In an extract from the book, Professor Hawking states: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.
“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.
“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
But clergy in the town have defended their faith and the existence of God.
Rev Roger Powell, the rector of the Ridgeway benefice, which covers Chiseldon and the Ogbournes, said: “Christians believe in a God that created the world and there has to have been something at some time for the world to have been created.
“Going with science, you can have any number of scientific laws but such is nature that they can be broken at any time. People think that something has been proved and then because of nature something has been disproved.
“Belief is about faith. Christians believe that God created the world.
“They cannot prove it in science but you cannot disprove it in science.”
However, he said he thought it was important for everyone to be able to express their views and to think and reflect.
Rev Laurence Moss, deacon of St Joseph’s Church, in Wroughton, said: “As far as creation is concerned, science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God.
“Science can only deal with physical materials that can be measured and quantified.
“To think that it happened by accident is far more a tremendous leap of faith which I cannot take in. When you think about the wonders of the universe, I think you have got to be very naïve or something to think that this happened by accident.”
He added: “I believe that everything exists because God willed it to exist, that matter cannot just evolve itself out of nothing.
“Science will tell us there was a big bang and tell us that the universe is expanding but it cannot tell us the why or the how of when it went from nothing to something.”
Speaking to The Daily Express, The Rt Rev Lee Rayfield, the bishop of Swindon, said: “Professor Hawking is not saying that it is impossible to believe in God because of what he now understands about the physics of the Big Bang.
“His conclusion does not change the remarkable coherence between the nature of our universe and the understanding Christians have about the nature and character of God.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/trade_directory/