Stephen Hawking has sold over 10 million books of Brief History of Time translated into 35 language since it was published in 1988. The book discusses the “big bang”, black holes, string theory indicating a universe with 10 to 26 dimensions, quantum mechanics and more in a way that most readers are able to follow. The language is a pleasant surprise for the lay reader. Hawking’s approach is broader than many scientists in the questions he asks. “Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is, to ask the question why. On the other hand, the people whose business it is to ask why, the philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the advances of scientific theories.”
It seems clear that after the universe came to be, that finding out what happened is a focus that is still being understood.
Hawking’s asks, not just how but “why does it exist”, and then tells us in the final statement of the book that if we could answer that we would “know the mind o God.”
It also seems clear that Hawking’s is not trying to tell us what or who God is, adding: "An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job!"
It is interesting how educated minds open up to consider God. Albert Einstein harbored a belief in, and reverence for, the harmony and beauty of what he called the mind of God as it was expressed in the creation of the universe and its laws.
