stephen hawking: the afterlife does not exist

Do you have children? Married?

 

I don't have a problem with those who think the afterlife doesn't exist.

I do have a problem with Stephen Hawking's opinion being trumpeted and ballyhooed as if its gospel on every existential question humans face.

He's a learned man, but he's one man.

 

Some people turn to Hawking, for others it's Oprah.

 

Does Hawking give away free cars?

 

If this is all there is -- if the matter in the universe continues to expand until it is dark, cold and lifeless or reverts to another big bang that will destroy all history before starting anew -- I am both in awe of the opportunity and disappointed in its impermanence.

 

Oprah ever do a guest spot - or two - on the Simpsons?

 

Wish Carl Sagan could send a message down here and tell us for sure.

I always trusted him.

 

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile."

 

In all seriousness, it is sad that Hawking sees his brain as nothing more sophisticated than a computer.

That might be how other people see his brain, but it doesn't mean he has to do it, also.

 

If anything, in light of the way his OWN theories have changed "conventional thinking" about the nature of the universe, and in light of the rise of the concepts of dark matter/dark energy (which has basically arisen out of nowhere in the last 15 years) you might think Hawking would be a little less emphatic about adopting the proof of a negative as an operative fact. But it does get him in the papers, which he does enjoy.

IMO there is no evidence of an afterlife from actual physical evidence. The possibilities of such a phenomenon being based on matter/energy/information processes currently not understood by us cannot be ruled out.

So my answer is: Probably not, but maybe.



Frankly, I'd rather there not be an afterlife than an infinite existence as a disembodied consciousness (which is how many belief systems conceive it). As others have pointed out, the longer your "afterlife" goes on, the shorter and less consequential your actual physical life would become in relation to your overall existence, until they became effectively utterly inconsequential. If your "consciousness" is millions of years old, how much do you care what took place in the 80-100 years you were alive?

Although, if your consciousness could have no new sensory or physical experiences, maybe those 80-100 years would be all you thought about anyway, until the end of eternity. Ugh.

And did you ever think... maybe our whole universe is all just a molecule on the end of the fingernail of some giant being ... and maybe the molecule on the end of my fingernail... is a whole tiny universe!!!

Jai Guru Deva Om.

 

Heck, we can barely move a few rocks in the sky to the left or right. You think we are ready for those concepts?

 

Since it was asked, yes I believe in the afterlife, and the Biblical account of heaven and hell. I also believe that God is not a math problem and eternity can't be explained by science. That's what makes faith what it is.