That's young Stephen. So I was watching the news or something recently. Yes, I don't remember specifically what I was watching. It's like that a lot lately. Anyway...he said that there was no God or gods. To him, this God or gods would have had to be here before the big bang and he says there was nothing here before the big bang. I disagree. I'll get into it later...maybe.
I read his book, "A Brief History of Time," some years ago. I forget everything I read. I should read it again. I won't. I should read "Stephen Hawking for Dummies." That would make more sense for me. BTW: Stephen has an IQ of 180. Not too shabby...
Anyway, this declaration from him bothered me. I guess this happens if someone or something makes you question your faith. I'm human. Stephen is human. Stephen is some sort of genius I guess. One of those "scholarly types."
I need to document what some other famous geniuses had to say on the subject:
Einstein:
He said he believed in the "pantheistic" God. The Universe (or Nature as the totality of everything) is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God. He did not believe in a "personal god," a god that can be related to as a person. He thought it silly to think of God as anything like us humans (I agree). He also called himself agnostic, He considered himself agnostic out of humility. He didn't have the hubris to believe he had the absolute answer. I like that.
Einstein was only about a 160 IQ. Einstein wasn't as big an Einstein as I thought. That might sound funny but, I just learned there are some close to and over 200. Seriously? Is the person giving the test smart enough to grade the test? Is the person that created the test smart enough to know what the right answers really are? Fascinating...
Here is what I learned:
IQ of 210. 210! What? I'll use a quote to judge what his thoughts are on God:
Nine requisites for contented living:
Health enough to make work a pleasure.
Wealth enough to support your needs.
Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them.
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them.
Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished.
Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor.
Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others.
Faith enough to make real the things of God.
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
It appears Johann had a bit of a Zen mind. That last one regarding hope, for example.
Health enough to make work a pleasure.
Wealth enough to support your needs.
Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them.
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them.
Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished.
Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor.
Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others.
Faith enough to make real the things of God.
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
It appears Johann had a bit of a Zen mind. That last one regarding hope, for example.
Leonardo Da Vinci:
IQ of 205. Damn! Regarding the beliefs of Da Vinci, I seem to find a muddled mess of nonsense. It appears many writers do not understand the difference between religion and faith. As if you cannot speak of God without attaching some form of religion.
Many writers claim that Leonardo was a Catholic and thus, Christian. Leonardo, being Italian, was most certainly born amidst a large amount of Catholics. This certainly didn't mean he was Catholic. In fact, he rejected Christianity. He thought Christians were silly with their "cult of saints." He thought it wiser to admire the virtuous people of one's own time, the ones who were known to be virtuous...not those virtuous by legend.
A lack of religion doesn't mean he didn't believe in God. I have no religion. I believe in God. Here are a couple quotes that I like:
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.”
Regarding the first quote: very Zen. Everything relates to everything else. The second quote shows an obvious belief in God. Yes, you can believe in God without having any religion. Da Vinci, as incredible an artist and inventor as he was, always felt his work could have been better. He was a perfectionist to the extreme. Perhaps that comes with an IQ of 205.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Many writers claim that Leonardo was a Catholic and thus, Christian. Leonardo, being Italian, was most certainly born amidst a large amount of Catholics. This certainly didn't mean he was Catholic. In fact, he rejected Christianity. He thought Christians were silly with their "cult of saints." He thought it wiser to admire the virtuous people of one's own time, the ones who were known to be virtuous...not those virtuous by legend.
A lack of religion doesn't mean he didn't believe in God. I have no religion. I believe in God. Here are a couple quotes that I like:
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.”
Regarding the first quote: very Zen. Everything relates to everything else. The second quote shows an obvious belief in God. Yes, you can believe in God without having any religion. Da Vinci, as incredible an artist and inventor as he was, always felt his work could have been better. He was a perfectionist to the extreme. Perhaps that comes with an IQ of 205.
IQ also of 205. Leibniz was one of the great thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is known as the last “universal genius”. He made deep and important contributions to the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of religion, as well as mathematics, physics, geology, jurisprudence, and history.
Denis Diderot, atheist and materialist, was almost moved to despair with regards to Liebniz: “When one compares the talents one has with those of a Leibniz, one is tempted to throw away one's books and go die quietly in the dark of some forgotten corner.”
Central to Leibniz's philosophy was the view that God freely chose the best world from an infinite number of possible worlds. He also felt that a person could act freely when the contrary of that action does not imply a contradiction. Meaning? Fate and free will could coincide together. In many things, Leibniz felt that both sides could be right if they didn't clash with each other. This is very Zen. Zen seems to pop up in much of the thinking of these early brainiacs. Also...God!
John Stuart Mill:
IQ 200. I was not aware of this gentleman until doing this bit of research. Interesting guy. We share some similar views on religion. Here is a ridiculously long paper written by Mill. I am going to read the whole thing soon. I'm too tired right now. I was just trying to find his thoughts on God. I opened a can of worms with this guy.
Check this out if you are inclined: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/mill/three/utilrelig.html
Mill believed in a “limited God,” a concept that he develops most fully in “Theism” written during the last years of his life. In this essay he does acknowledge that the most rigorous applications of modern scientific methods cannot rule out the argument from design as proof of God’s existence. Mill believed that the order of nature does in fact point to the existence of an intelligent mind conspiring to an end, to a God.
Denis Diderot, atheist and materialist, was almost moved to despair with regards to Liebniz: “When one compares the talents one has with those of a Leibniz, one is tempted to throw away one's books and go die quietly in the dark of some forgotten corner.”
Central to Leibniz's philosophy was the view that God freely chose the best world from an infinite number of possible worlds. He also felt that a person could act freely when the contrary of that action does not imply a contradiction. Meaning? Fate and free will could coincide together. In many things, Leibniz felt that both sides could be right if they didn't clash with each other. This is very Zen. Zen seems to pop up in much of the thinking of these early brainiacs. Also...God!
John Stuart Mill:
IQ 200. I was not aware of this gentleman until doing this bit of research. Interesting guy. We share some similar views on religion. Here is a ridiculously long paper written by Mill. I am going to read the whole thing soon. I'm too tired right now. I was just trying to find his thoughts on God. I opened a can of worms with this guy.
Check this out if you are inclined: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/mill/three/utilrelig.html
Mill believed in a “limited God,” a concept that he develops most fully in “Theism” written during the last years of his life. In this essay he does acknowledge that the most rigorous applications of modern scientific methods cannot rule out the argument from design as proof of God’s existence. Mill believed that the order of nature does in fact point to the existence of an intelligent mind conspiring to an end, to a God.
Mill felt that God was not exclusively concerned with realizing the greatest possible happiness
for the greatest number of human beings. This was one of the "limitations" he believed existed in God. To quote Mill: "The limited God (and even
Christianity) has produced some good, but it is now up to humans
to build upon that good, to move on to the realization of the fullest
human happiness." Mill's religion was Humanity. His intention was to create a non-theological religion and yet, much of his life was dominated by and guided by his study of religion (check out the link above and you will see what I mean). He had tremendous animosity for "traditional" religion.
That's quite a sentence. I like this guy (so far)...
"If God exists then theists will enjoy eternal bliss, while atheists will suffer eternal damnation. If God does not exist then theists will enjoy finite happiness before they die, and atheists will enjoy finite happiness too, though not so much because they will experience angst rather than the comforts of religion. Regardless of whether God exists, then, theists have it better than atheists; hence belief in God is the most rational belief to have."
Blaise Pascal:
IQ 195. I only really knew of Pascal as the "math guy." They also named a computer language after him back in the day.
Of course, Pascal looked at the belief in God (or disbelief) as a math problem:
There are numerous other ways he looks at the logic or illogic of the belief in God. He simply believes that those that believe in God live a better life whether they are right or wrong.
I like this guy also...
That's enough. My OCD has kicked in. I will continue my research without the chains of this very long blog post. I will return with additional thoughts from other brainiacs as I see fit.
