A philosopher deconstructs Hawking (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 17:39 (4917 days ago) @ dhw

In today's Guardian there is an exclusive interview with Stephen Hawking. > 
> In the talk he will argue that tiny quantum fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life, emerged. "Science predicts that many kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in," he said.
> 
> Note that science doesn't tell us that many kinds of universe have been spontaneously created out of nothing. Here we have a subtle combination of past, future and present, making it quite impossible to gauge how much of this is scientifically sound and how much is pure fantasy.> 
 
> Evidence in support of M-theory might also come from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern..."[/i]
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> What is this "also" doing here? No evidence has been cited. Note the use of "might", and link it to the following:
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> As an agnostic, I expect believers on both sides of the fence to apply the same standards. At least theists acknowledge that their belief requires faith. If a scientist dismisses their faith, that is his own affair, but it seems to me that any theory reliant on "possibility", "might", "would", "as yet undiscovered" remains a fairy tale until someone comes up with evidence.-I have left much of dhw's contribution because the following interview with Rolf-Dieter Heuer, who is the chief scientist at CERN (LHC) looking for the Higgs boson, discusses the boundry betwenn knowledge and faith in theories. He does not think we will ever know what was before the Big Bang, if anything. Also, read the commentaries afterward, especially the discussions of meditation and that DNA is a code that must have an intelligent inventor.- http://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/263-heuer-rolf-dieter/264-experimental-physics-and-...