Stephen Hawking’s Latest Book Converting Lot of Atheists Into Believers

The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking’s latest book co-authored with physicist Leonard Mlodinow, is turning a lot of atheists/agnostics into believers, finds KBNN. An Internet based survey conducted by Rbit Analytics, an affiliated body of KBNN, has found that the book has profoundly shaken the disbelief of atheists, and toppled a lot of atheists/agnostics into believing in the God hypothesis.

“Atheism was such a simple and elegant concept before Prof. Hawking jumped into the fray, pardon me the somewhat out of place idiom, to explain the non-need for God hypothesis”, says Dan Black, head and co-founder of Believers Anonymous, a mutual help group that helps its members out of the addiction of belief.

“It is just confusing a lot of simple minded atheists who were basically looking for a non-explanatory rejection of God. Forcing them to understand all this complex science behind the absence of God makes them want to take the easy way out, and believe instead”

The phenomenon, though, is not limited to simple minded next door atheists, as the polls clearly show. People from all strata of society, including notable thinkers, journalists, even astrophysicists, are turning away from atheism/agnosticism, since the publication of book. If at all, the phenomenon is more noticeable among the scientists and science journalists.

“Science believes in Occam’s razor”, said Dr. Rupert Edwards, president of Association of American Astrophysicists, “and unfortunately, it’s looking like Prof. Hawking’s is putting atheism right where the razor can slash it out of existence. When compared to the simple explanation that religion offers for creation, Prof. Hawking’s version is so complicated and explains laboriously, and as fantastically, what the God hypothesis explained succinctly. Besides, right now, both the hypothesis seem to do equivalently on the requirement of falsifiability. So between the two, I’m not surprised that even scientists are picking up the God hypothesis”

Hawking’s book puts an alternative argument for the creation of universe, that makes God unnecessary even to light up the fuse, as he puts it. His answer is “M-theory,” which, he says, “posits 11 space-time dimensions, vibrating strings, point particles, two-dimensional membranes, three-dimensional blobs and other objects that are more difficult to picture and occupy even more dimensions of space”.

“It’s this kind of fantastic scientific theories that makes people look away from science”, says psychologist and a budding science popularizer, Dr. Dean Donahue, whose upcoming book aims to explain science in terms of popular concepts borrowed from Baseball and Hollywood. “Only PhDs in hard sciences can even being to attempt to understand any of it, if at all”, he insisted. “For all the popularity of A Brief History of Time, how many people have actually read and understood it?”

The worst attack, however came from a member of Believers Anonymous. “It’s crazy”, said Terry, a recent believer turned atheist, “the beauty of atheism for me was that it needed no explanation, and yet sounded intelligent enough, unlike religious belief. I can easily make assertions like ‘God does not exist’, and put the onus of proving God’s existence on others”

“If anyone asked me to substantiate my claim, I could just say, ‘but you cannot prove a negative existential claim’, and walk away with head held high. Now try explaining this Hawking’s complex creation hypothesis to believers. You’ll be bombarded with questions. ‘Can you prove the multiverse hypothesis’, umm. ‘Can you observe these multiverses’? umm, no, but …’ How about these vibrating strings?’ ummm. ‘So by your own logic, multiverses do not exist!’. Err”

“Who wants the burden of proof, man”, he added dejectedly, “especially when you don’t understand the head or tail of what you’re trying to prove or disprove”

Religious leaders are surprisingly silent on the phenomenon.

“It’s too early to comment”, said a local church leader, informally talking to KBNN reporter. “It might be a positive development, but you have to understand that these people joining the believers are not the true believers. Their belief in God could be as flippant as their ex-belief in atheism. It will certainly be good for them to be away from the atheistic beliefs, but for the large number of true believers who come to my church for instance, standing next to these half-converts might be a dangerous influence. But I’ve faith in God. He has turned His worst enemy, Prof. Hawkings, into His greatest agent. Praise the Lord”

Prof. Hawkings was not available for comment.