Stephen Hawking - RIP

Died yesterday at age 76.

• You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly.
Amen.
-Aaron Freeman.

For Christians, you are more orderly.

No religious wars please.

I cried when I found out.

Stephen Hawking shaped my view of the universe and my place in it. I first read his A Brief History of Time when I was thirteen, and though some of it went straight over my head, far more of it didn't. It truly changed my life, irrevocably.

"The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make this station and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star-stuff. We are the Universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out." ~Delenn, Babylon 5

RIP, Stephen Hawking. You are truly star-stuff now.

Read at 13? Wonderful. 'Course, it wasn't available when I was 13. Computers were my love affair then. Which tended to dominate every non leisure book that I tended to buy. I own many of Stephen's books...

• A Brief History of Time. (Both versions, Illustrated)
• A Briefer History of Time
• God Created The Integers
• The Universe In A Nutshell
• George And The Big Bang
• The Theory of Everything (Purchased twice after my niece ran off with my copy and refused to return it even under threat of court order LOL)
• Black Holes and Baby Universes
• The Nature of Space and Time
• The Future of Spacetime

I was always in awe of how he managed to be such a prolific writer of such "aspirin and Anacin" material.

We lost another giant in science, but another back to stand on like Einstein's.

The priest will conclude the festivities, immediately reminding the congregation and correcting the physicist that Stephen's neurons are now, in fact, more orderly. The priest will continue to wax eloquent about how the first law of thermodynamics immediately points to the teachings of the bible.

The notion of a God is the notion of an infinite power. God represents all of the energy that is created in the universe. This energy is not unto a battery that is discharging but it is a perpetual power source, returning to all of the energy that was created by God.

It isn't about the law of conservation of energy. It is about a more spiritual law of conservation of the Almighty.

If Stephen was connected to the battery on the positive pole, he has returned unto God.

I am bothered by people who claim that Professor Hawking is "with god" or converted on his deathbed (by the Pope, no less, as some claim). This brilliant man was a confirmed atheist. It is an insult to his memory.

dscott8 wrote:I am bothered by people who claim that Professor Hawking is "with god" or converted on his deathbed (by the Pope, no less, as some claim). This brilliant man was a confirmed atheist. It is an insult to his memory.

Why are you bothered?

Yes, it's idiotic to claim that he made a deathbed conversion if he didn't. That's a flat-out falsehood. But if I say that Stephen Hawking is now 'with God', that's a statement of my belief. It says nothing about his beliefs.

It's not an insult to a brilliant man to say that I think he might have got one of his theories wrong.

Bluesqueak wrote:

dscott8 wrote:I am bothered by people who claim that Professor Hawking is "with god" or converted on his deathbed (by the Pope, no less, as some claim). This brilliant man was a confirmed atheist. It is an insult to his memory.

Why are you bothered?

Yes, it's idiotic to claim that he made a deathbed conversion if he didn't. That's a flat-out falsehood. But if I say that Stephen Hawking is now 'with God', that's a statement of my belief. It says nothing about his beliefs.

It's not an insult to a brilliant man to say that I think he might have got one of his theories wrong.

How would you feel if your famous Dad passed away and people made public proclamations that Allah had gifted him with his 72 virgins? It's presumptuous to project one's faith onto those who do not share it.

dscott8 wrote:

Bluesqueak wrote:
Why are you bothered?

Yes, it's idiotic to claim that he made a deathbed conversion if he didn't. That's a flat-out falsehood. But if I say that Stephen Hawking is now 'with God', that's a statement of my belief. It says nothing about his beliefs.

It's not an insult to a brilliant man to say that I think he might have got one of his theories wrong.

How would you feel if your famous Dad passed away and people made public proclamations that Allah had gifted him with his 72 virgins? It's presumptuous to project one's faith onto those who do not share it.

Unoffended.

If a devout Hindu explained to me that they thought my (deceased) Dad had been reincarnated, it wouldn't occur to me that this was 'presumptuous'. That's what they think. Likewise, I'm not 'projecting my faith onto someone who doesn't share it' if I say I think that Steven Hawking is now with God. I'm saying what I think has happened. I might be wrong, or the devout Hindu might be wrong, or Steven Hawking might have been wrong, but the rightness or wrongness of our opinions is ultimately dependent on the reality of the universe, not on whatever faith we hold.

When exactly did it become presumptuous to make a public statement of what you think?