Critique of Hawking’s, “Did God Create the Universe?”

The Discovery Channel aired its first in a series programs called Curiosity. The first show entitled, “Did God Create the Universe?” was shown Sunday evening, August 7th, at 8:00 PM. I did not get to see the program from the very beginning but I picked it up at the point where the Pope called a Cosmology convention at the Vatican in 1985** where he said, “It is OK to study cosmology, but don’t touch the origins of the universe because that is the realm of God.” Wherein Hawking remarks, “I am glad that I did not follow that advice.”

The Cosmic Cook Book: The Ingredients to make a universe.
Hawking says that it is a simple thing to make the universe!? (Umm… just how many universes has Hawking made???! Uhh, None! So, how does he know that it is a “simple thing” to make a universe Anyway?) Be that as it may, he states, “All it takes is just three things: Matter, Energy and Space”! Where did matter and energy come from? The interesting answer given was, “We have had no idea until the 20th Century. Then Albert Einstein came up with the idea about matter and energy. He said matter and energy are the same and interchangeable.” Hence, he made the formula, E= MC2

The admission that science “had no idea” of where all the matter involving the Big Bang theory came from is very telling to me. Because, according to articles written about the Big Bang, “they” knew all the answers. Now they admit that their answers were hanging on the “had no idea” premise! How do we know that what “they” are saying now is absolute truth? Here in is a problem; this program presents the idea of the Big Bang as an absolute fact. Is it? Not according to many “other” scientists studying cosmology (see below).

This still sparks the questions: Where did space and energy come? The answer: “From the Big bang!” Where did that come from? Some answer: “God did it.” Then the question is asked, “But did He?” To which Hawking states, “But science has a different answer.” (It should be, “Scientists have a different answer”; science can not answer anything.)

How did it arise out of nothing? The only answers are either from the Creator, or spontaneously on its own accord. According to Hawking, it came about due to Negative energy! And an illustration is given of a man making a hill (the positive) while at the same time he is also making a hole (the negative). When the hill is complete the matter in the hill (the positive) equals the matter taken out forming the hole (the negative). This is what happened at the Big Bang. Huh??? Where did the “energy” come from in the first place? The faulty parts of the illustration are (1) that there was “energy” already there at the start (where did that come from?); and (2) the “energy” coming out of the hole was the same “energy” making the hill, yet it is supposed to be negative energy, which is the opposite of positive energy.

The positive and negative equals Zero
The question is asked, “Where did all the ‘negative’ energy go?” We are told that it is all throughout the Universe. Space is full of negative energy. Based on what evidence? (None given) This negative energy is what offsets the positive energy to always equal zero. The idea that negative energy is spread throughout universe and since it adds up to zero, this somehow means, according to the convoluted way Hawking thinks, “You don’t need God” Yet, the following questions still loom like a Damocles Sword:

“Who or What triggered the event that resulted in the Big Bang?” And, “How does something come from nothing?”

Again according to the way Hawking thinks, this is answered by quantum physics where sub-atomic level protons seem to appear out of nothing, remain for a while, then disappear. To him, “This means that the universe could simply ‘pop’ into existence from nothing.” Hawking goes on, “I think science has a more compelling explanation than a divine creator” The key here is that just because one can conjure up a “compelling explanation” does not automatically make that explanation the Truth.

For one thing, this idea raises the questions: “Do the protons appear from some previous location then return to it”; or, “Do they spontaneously create themselves from nothing and then vanish back into nothing.” It is the premise of the second question, that protons spontaneously create themselves from nothing; then return to nothing, which violates the physical law of conservation of matter and energy. This law centers on the fact that matter cannot be created nor destroyed. Therefore, the idea that these protons appear from a preexisting place in time then move back to it fits the law of conservation of energy, whereas, the idea that they are spontaneously created then destroyed contradicts that law! So, from this aspect of the first law of thermodynamics, the Universe could NOT “just ‘pop’ into existence” from nowhere!

Time and the Big Bang
Time began at the Big Bang. Once outside of the event horizon of the pre-big bang black hole, time began as part of the continuum. This is the unstated premise of this section of the show. It goes on to build the case against time because according to the theory a black hole kills time.

According to generally accepted science, it is theorized that a clock/time would slow down as it gets closer to a black hole. Then once inside the black hole, the clock/time would stop altogether. This is due to the forces at work within the black hole that causes time not to exist. Therefore, as we would go back in time towards the Big Bang the Universe would get smaller and smaller until it is a small black hole the size of a period at the end of a sentence.

Problem: according to the physics, the gravitational field in a black hole is SO strong that nothing, including light can escape. Therefore, for the black hole to all of a sudden expand at the Big Bang, Something very Powerful had to alter the physical laws operating in the black hole to cause it to expand into a creative force rather than continuing to contract.

Now with the premise that time would cease altogether in the “pre-bang,” black hole, Hawking states that since “time did not exist before the big bang, there was no place for a creator!  There is no time in which god could create. Therefore, there is no god, No after life, no heaven.” (Hence, there would be no Hell, as well). Umm, I guess when your mind is bent around quantum physics; it is natural to make quantum leaps of judgment.

Final Analysis
But is this true? There was no time before the Big Bang; therefore, God did not exist before the big bang? (See my article below,”The Point of Eternal Timelessness”)

The answer is, “NO!” All the premise does is show forth Hawking’s total ignorance concerning the Creator God of the Judeo/Christian Scriptures. This Creator God has revealed the fact that He is the Self Existent One, Who existed before all things (Colossians 1:17); and the Father of Time! (Isaiah 9:6). Hawking is right about one thing: Time is part of the Space-matter-continuum, therefore, part of God’s Creation, when He spoke time-space-matter into existence. The key is the Creator exists outside of time -space – and matter. Before matter, energy, and space were; God, the Creator IS – He is the Great I AM.

Epilogue
The program was very psychologically programmed through the use of “wow” level computer graphics to help put the viewer into the “Wow” mode of thought. It was like a lawyer “leading” a witness during a trial. The glaring issue was the fallacy of begging the question: They argued from the position that the Big Bang is a proven fact; when in reality it is not. There are many scientists[1] (secular particularly) that have compelling evidence against the idea of a big bang; so it is not a settled “fact” any more than evolutionism is. George Ellis is quoted in an article by W.W Gibbs, entitled, “Profile: Geroge F.R. Ellis” published in the October 1995 edition of Scientific American, as stating:

“People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations….For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations….You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong in that. What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that.”[2]

So the idea of the Big Bang and Hawking’s argument against God as Creator remain in the realm of man’s fanciful ideas that although they are imaginative, fall far short of what is true.

Again I must emphasize that the questions: “Where did we come from? Is there life after death? Is there a heaven and a hell? Are all questions whose answers reside outside the realm of human experience and observation! Therefore, any answers that are legitimate must come from Special Revelation of One Who posses all knowledge. He has provided these answers in His Revelation, the Judeo/Christian Scriptures.

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** This message from the Pope seems to be a focal point of Hawking. He writes about it in his book, A Brief History of Time,  where on page 120 he states that the cosmology convention took place in 1981; then according to his students, he reiterates it again in his “Hong Kong Lectures” in 2006 stating that the convention took place in 1985, which is the date given on this program.  Problem is, neither addresses by the Pope, John Paul II, and transcribed, (both in 1981 and 1985) give such an explicit warning.

[1] Other secular scientists who do not hold to the Big Bang include Nobel laureate Dr. Hannes Alfvén, Professor Geoffrey Burbidge, Dr. Halton Arp, and the British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, who is accredited with first coining the term “the Big Bang” in the early 1950’s.

[2] W. Wayt Gibbs, “Profile: George F. R. Ellis,” Scientific American, October 1995, Vol. 273, No.4, p. 55.