Few figures have reshaped our understanding of the universe as profoundly as Stephen Hawking . Known for his groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the cosmos, Hawking was not only a scientist but a symbol of resilience, a man who defied a devastating diagnosis to become one of the most influential thinkers of the modern age. Yet when it came to questions that reach beyond the limits of science, God, heaven, and life after death , his answers were as unflinching as his intellect.
A life defined by defiance and discovery
Born in 1942, Stephen Hawking’s life was transformed at just 21 when doctors diagnosed him with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neurone disease. He was told he had only two years to live. Instead, he went on to survive for more than half a century, passing away in 2018 at the age of 76, making him the longest-living motor neurone disease survivor on record.
Over those decades, Hawking’s physical abilities deteriorated steadily, yet his mind remained as sharp as ever. He continued to work, teach, and write, communicating through a computerised speech system attached to his wheelchair. The system, powered by his wheelchair batteries, used cheek movements to control an on-screen keyboard, a painstaking process that allowed him to write books, deliver lectures, and share ideas with the world.
“There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers”
Hawking’s views on death were as direct as his scientific reasoning. Asked in 2011 what he thought happened after we die, he told The Guardian:
“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.
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; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
It was a stark, unsentimental view, one that echoed his lifelong commitment to scientific evidence and rational thought. To Hawking, death was not something to fear, but a reminder of the finite nature of our existence. He believed that meaning could be found not in promises of eternity, but in the pursuit of understanding and in making the most of the time we have.
Even as he dismissed the notion of life beyond death, he urged people to live purposefully, saying we should “seek the greatest value of our action.” For Hawking, science itself was a form of beauty, “beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the fundamental equations of physics.”
His simple answer on God
When asked about the existence of God, Hawking offered a response that was as calm as it was final. In his later years, he elaborated on this question in his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions.
“For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God. Well, I suppose it's possible that I've upset someone up there, but I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature.
If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed. If you like, you can say the laws are the work of God, but that is more a definition of God than a proof of his existence.”
He went further still, writing:
“We are each free to believe what we want and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God.
No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization, there’s probably no Heaven and no afterlife, either.
We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that I am extremely grateful.”
In the same book, he described belief in an afterlife as “just wishful thinking”, adding: “There is no reliable evidence for it, and it flies in the face of everything we know in science.”
These reflections didn’t come from cynicism but from his deep trust in the laws of physics, the same laws that, in his eyes, governed everything from galaxies to human life itself.
Seeing the future through science
Even near the end of his life, Hawking’s attention remained firmly on humanity’s future. In Brief Answers to the Big Questions, published posthumously in 2018, he warned of the dangers and promises of artificial intelligence (AI).
He cautioned that dismissing the power of AI would be a grave mistake:
Hawking had already raised the alarm in a 2014 BBC interview, saying:
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.
It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded.”
A legacy rooted in reason, and a universe of questions
Stephen Hawking’s outlook stood in clear contrast to others who grappled with similar questions from different vantage points. Antony Flew , once the world’s most prominent atheist philosopher, eventually changed his mind, affirming belief in a Creator after reflecting on the complexity of DNA and the origins of life, a journey he detailed in his book There Is a God. Similarly, Francis Collins , the geneticist who led the Human Genome Project , moved from atheism to Christianity, describing his conversion in The Language of God and crediting both science and personal experience for reshaping his beliefs.
Albert Einstein , on the other hand, rejected the notion of a personal God who intervenes in human affairs, saying he believed in “Spinoza’s God,” one revealed through the harmony of nature and the laws of physics. He called himself a “religious nonbeliever,” acknowledging not a deity of scripture, but a deep, almost spiritual admiration for the order of the universe.
Hawking’s views diverged sharply from Flew’s faith and Collins’s reconciliation of science and belief, yet shared something of Einstein’s cosmic awe, a respect for the elegance and inevitability of natural law. In the end, his insistence on reason over revelation was not a denial of mystery but a recognition of its true scale. Perhaps it takes a true man of science, one unafraid to question the sacred and confront the unknown, to bring humanity closer to understanding the universe, and in doing so, closer to whatever we may call God.
A life defined by defiance and discovery
Born in 1942, Stephen Hawking’s life was transformed at just 21 when doctors diagnosed him with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neurone disease. He was told he had only two years to live. Instead, he went on to survive for more than half a century, passing away in 2018 at the age of 76, making him the longest-living motor neurone disease survivor on record.
Over those decades, Hawking’s physical abilities deteriorated steadily, yet his mind remained as sharp as ever. He continued to work, teach, and write, communicating through a computerised speech system attached to his wheelchair. The system, powered by his wheelchair batteries, used cheek movements to control an on-screen keyboard, a painstaking process that allowed him to write books, deliver lectures, and share ideas with the world.
“There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers”
Hawking’s views on death were as direct as his scientific reasoning. Asked in 2011 what he thought happened after we die, he told The Guardian:
“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.
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; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
It was a stark, unsentimental view, one that echoed his lifelong commitment to scientific evidence and rational thought. To Hawking, death was not something to fear, but a reminder of the finite nature of our existence. He believed that meaning could be found not in promises of eternity, but in the pursuit of understanding and in making the most of the time we have.
Even as he dismissed the notion of life beyond death, he urged people to live purposefully, saying we should “seek the greatest value of our action.” For Hawking, science itself was a form of beauty, “beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the fundamental equations of physics.”
His simple answer on God
When asked about the existence of God, Hawking offered a response that was as calm as it was final. In his later years, he elaborated on this question in his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions.
“For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God. Well, I suppose it's possible that I've upset someone up there, but I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature.
If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed. If you like, you can say the laws are the work of God, but that is more a definition of God than a proof of his existence.”
He went further still, writing:
“We are each free to believe what we want and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God.
No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization, there’s probably no Heaven and no afterlife, either.
We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that I am extremely grateful.”
In the same book, he described belief in an afterlife as “just wishful thinking”, adding: “There is no reliable evidence for it, and it flies in the face of everything we know in science.”
These reflections didn’t come from cynicism but from his deep trust in the laws of physics, the same laws that, in his eyes, governed everything from galaxies to human life itself.
Seeing the future through science
Even near the end of his life, Hawking’s attention remained firmly on humanity’s future. In Brief Answers to the Big Questions, published posthumously in 2018, he warned of the dangers and promises of artificial intelligence (AI).
“We may face an intelligence explosion that ultimately results in machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails,” he wrote.
He cautioned that dismissing the power of AI would be a grave mistake:
“It’s tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction, but this would be a mistake — and potentially our worst mistake ever.”
Hawking had already raised the alarm in a 2014 BBC interview, saying:
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.
It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded.”
A legacy rooted in reason, and a universe of questions
Stephen Hawking’s outlook stood in clear contrast to others who grappled with similar questions from different vantage points. Antony Flew , once the world’s most prominent atheist philosopher, eventually changed his mind, affirming belief in a Creator after reflecting on the complexity of DNA and the origins of life, a journey he detailed in his book There Is a God. Similarly, Francis Collins , the geneticist who led the Human Genome Project , moved from atheism to Christianity, describing his conversion in The Language of God and crediting both science and personal experience for reshaping his beliefs.
Albert Einstein , on the other hand, rejected the notion of a personal God who intervenes in human affairs, saying he believed in “Spinoza’s God,” one revealed through the harmony of nature and the laws of physics. He called himself a “religious nonbeliever,” acknowledging not a deity of scripture, but a deep, almost spiritual admiration for the order of the universe.
Hawking’s views diverged sharply from Flew’s faith and Collins’s reconciliation of science and belief, yet shared something of Einstein’s cosmic awe, a respect for the elegance and inevitability of natural law. In the end, his insistence on reason over revelation was not a denial of mystery but a recognition of its true scale. Perhaps it takes a true man of science, one unafraid to question the sacred and confront the unknown, to bring humanity closer to understanding the universe, and in doing so, closer to whatever we may call God.
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