themarginalian.org · 9 hours ago

Is There a God? Stephen Hawking Gives the Definitive Answer to the Eternal Question – the Marginalian

In his final book, *Brief Answers to the Big Questions*, Stephen Hawking takes up the oldest question humanity has carried - is there a God? - and answers it with the same qualities that defined his life: precision, humility, and an almost luminous lack of fear. Drawing on the physics of black holes, quantum mechanics, and the nature of time itself, he arrives at the conclusion that before the Big Bang, time did not exist, and "you can't get to a time before the Big Bang because there was no time before the Big Bang" - leaving no space, literally, for a creator to have occupied. What makes the argument quietly moving is not its conclusion but its spirit: Hawking, who spent his life inside a body the world once read as cursed by God, chose wonder over bitterness, and rigor over comfort. He closes not with emptiness but with an unexpected tenderness - "we have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful" - suggesting that a universe requiring no divine author may ask more of us, not less: to be brave, to be curious, and to make the future a place worth traveling toward.