Comments on: Stephen Hawking: ‘There is no heaven; it’s a fairy story’

By: The Guy

The Guy — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:13:10 +0000

To the person that said we cannot prove that there isn’t a heaven, you cannot prove that there is. What’s more logical, “There’s a UFO!” or “There’s a plane!”
It’s common sense really, the idea of heaven is idiotic. It is truly only there for people afraid of death. It is a way for them to accept death by believing that death isn’t the end.

At the person that said if your brain is like a computer you can just back-up the hard drive, I like that idea. It’s like when you die, all your memories are stored on a universal cloud network.

By: cassy

cassy — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:18:22 +0000

Ancient religious texts have been around for a lot longer than Stephen Hawking. I’m not a religious person, and I think people are entitled to their opinions but I disagree with Stephen Hawking and as a mathematician and physicist who ought to know a bit about infinity, he shouldn’t be writing things off without irrefutable evidence to the contrary.

By: alan

alan — Sun, 22 May 2011 06:45:39 +0000

“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years”.
Maybe, just maybe. You shouldn’t put so much faith in scientists mate.

By: jsmith

jsmith — Fri, 20 May 2011 18:38:24 +0000

maybe it impacts on a sense of ethics to consider that we are just machines…blindly reproducing. it probably makes it easier to create technology that can be used destructively rather than attend to the need to organise society in a more harmonious way. it certainly would remove the need to understand the mysterious connection between awareness and its effect on the world around it. if the “field” that events appear to occur within is “conscious”, then computeability is not so straightforward..what appears to be inanimate matter exists within your mind…all particles etc are an artifact of observing them… the universe is consciousness. computers and brains are lower-order nodes that filter out data not increase the awareness of it.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:54:08 +0000

”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;
If my computer fails, I can re-create it on another hard drive. Identically.
If you really believe your brain is a computer ( as I do, because it is ) then you cannot discount the possibility that your life has been ‘backed up’ by some sort of wi-fi perhaps.
No religious thoughts were involved in the genesis of this comment.

By: David

David — Fri, 20 May 2011 08:59:57 +0000

I totally agree with the scientific mainstream there is no god. The real implication is not about god. The real implication is life is theoretically unlimited. Scientist should to turn to denying natural death. The god argument will spin on pointlessly whatever words anyone uses.

By: jibjib

jibjib — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:50:19 +0000

When we die, it is exactly as you are now. Only without a body. Or mind. But really life and death are the same thing…Thoughts.

By: Berber Anna

Berber Anna — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:03:04 +0000

Charlott: In the absence of proof of a positive, I prefer to assume the negative. It’s easier than assuming countless unproven positives.

Steffen: Interesting. That’s how I’ve experienced anaesthesia the two times I’ve been under — I don’t so much awaken slowly, as ‘turn back on’ (although when I find I can’t properly move or open my eyes yet, I do the ‘turn off’ thing again, only to experience the sudden return of consciousness a second time). I do know that time has passed, but there’s no dreams to remember, just nothing. No confusion or anything either, just annoyance at the weak and sore feeling that surgery brings.
I like this way of looking at death. Thanks.

By: Steffen

Steffen — Wed, 18 May 2011 09:39:47 +0000

I think I experienced once what it is like to be dead.

It was during a standard medical procedure, when the doc accidentally injected me an overdose. I fell into deep unconsciousness immediately, and awoke in an instant around 20 minutes later. It was no slow awakening like when anesthesia wears off, but: Conscious – *Click* – Unconscious – *Click* – Conscious again. Like a laptop being suspended, and resumed 20 minutes later. Mr. Hawkings analogy is quite to the point.

How were these 20 minutes like? Difficult to say… ‘nothingness’ or ‘non-existence’ would really describe it best.

And this is what I expect after death. The same feeling we all who are alive today had in the year 1700, this feeling into all eternity.

By: charlott major-rendell

charlott major-rendell — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:16:20 +0000

no body knows if there is a heaven or hell, because no body knows what it is like to be dead. this means no technical science machine thingy (that humans created) will never give us a reliable answer.