Stephen Hawking confirmed that he is an atheist in an interview this past week, saying explicitly what he's only hinted at in the past.
Responding to a question from a reporter at
Spain's El Mundo newspaper, Hawking explained that when he spoke of God in his books, he meant it as a metaphor. He also didn't seem to condemn those who do believe in God, saying the impulse is a natural one.
"Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation," he said using his characteristic speech-generating device.
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"What I meant by 'we would know the mind of God' is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn't. I'm an atheist."
NBC News reported that Hawking's pronouncement was made at the Starmus Festival at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where several prominent scientific minds gathered over the weekend for lectures and a bit of old-fashioned hobnobbing.
Several years ago, in 2008, Hawking
told Reuters that he didn't believe in an interventionist God, but seemed to concede the plausibility of a so-called "watchmaker God" that created the universe and set it in motion. At the time, he stated that he was "not religious in the normal sense," and said "God does not intervene to break the laws" that He himself created.
In his 2010 book, "The Grand Design," Hawking seemed to let go of the idea of the watchmaker God as well. In it, he said that the origin of the universe was becoming so well known that God was no longer necessary to explain it.
Concluding his interview with El Mundo, he said, "In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind."
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