A YOUNG GREEK BOY OVERTURNS STEPHEN HAWKING’S ATHEISM!
We have dealt with the phenomenon of atheism many times in the past, in many of our announcements, whenever we were called to comment on texts by atheist writers, and we had adequately proved that atheism is an absurdity! The reason was that, while it rejects every kind of religious belief, in essence it likewise professes another kind - a “metaphysical” kind - of belief, which, however, has been unable over the past three hundred years to prove its own… beliefs! So, because it was unable to provide proof of its own beliefs -that is, of the supposed nonexistence of God- it has strived ever since to disparage the beliefs of those who have a different faith – and also believe in the existence of God!
More than any other religious belief, our Orthodox Church has been attacked and is still being attacked, from its founding until our time, with an unprecedented hatred and fury by the various systems of atheism: either those that appeared as forms of the European “Enlightenment”, or those of atheistic Humanism, Dialectic Materialism and Marxism - or with other forms and masks, behind all of which, of course lurks their inspirer, the father of lies: the devil.
Between Christ and the Antichrist, faith and faithlessness, truth and falsehood, there is an incessant and titanic struggle, which will continue until the End of Time. For this struggle, faithlessness and atheism have always recruited all the available means at their disposal. With a particularly chosen manner, they resorted to Science, in which they hoped to find supports that would justify their theories. One of their more prominent arguments was that Science is Christianity’s major adversary and that mankind’s greatest scientists with their scientific discoveries have supposedly come along and debunked the Christian faith and dispelled the “myth regarding Christianity”.
Tοday, the “banner” of atheism is held by a certain few scientists, who, permeated by contemporary atheistic and ideological currents have put their scientific knowledge to use in the service of atheism. One such personage was the famous English physicist Stephen Hawking. Most certainly as a scientist he was a genius, and his contribution to the field of astrophysics and the study of the Universe is unquestionable. Nevertheless, he proved to be terribly inadequate when it came to his metaphysical perceptions - especially in his beliefs regarding God. Despite the fact that he spent most of his life suffering from a rare muscular disease, he was unable to perceive his smallness, his inadequacy. He was overcome by an unbelievable egotism; he in fact came to believe that he was omniscient, convinced that since he had comprehended certain “mysteries” of the perceptible cosmos (for example black holes in outer space), he could likewise be able to comprehend the infinite and incomprehensible to the human mind – that is, God! So, after not succeeding to comprehend Him, (of course!), he then decided to deny Him in the most naive manner that was in no way befitting his otherwise scientific worth!
After his death, a book of his titled: “BRIEF ANSWERS TO BIG QUESTIONS” - in which he expounds his metaphysical ideas - was put in circulation. In it, he attempts in a truly childish attempt to “prove” the nonexistence of God! Here is what he wrote about faith in God: He begins with the question, “Does God exist?”; to which he gives the following reply: “I think that the universe was created spontaneously from scratch, in accordance with the laws of Science. If you accept, like me, that the laws of nature are set, then it doesn’t take long to ask: what role is there left for God? ... If you like, you can say that those laws are the work of God, but that is probably a definition of God, rather than a proof of His existence”, (Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ)!
For Hawking, the laws of gravity, relativity, quantum mechanics, et.al. suffice, to explain everything in the universe! In our humble opinion the laws of nature can certainly explain many things about how the universe works, but not everything – given that even today, many natural phenomena have not been studied sufficiently and for the time being, Science can’t give us any clear and complete answers to them. And it certainly can’t give us any answer to questions such as: How, or who created the laws of nature, and why do they work the way they work, and not differently? Also, when accepting that the laws of nature are the work of God, it doesn’t mean that we have reached a definition per se of God - as Hawking so naively thinks - because God is by nature infinite and incomprehensible, whereas the laws of nature can be explored and comprehended. Also, by using the words “I think” in his statement “that the universe was created spontaneously from scratch”, Hawking is essentially expressing a belief - which, however, he cannot prove with scientific arguments.
Further down, he writes: “But did a divine hand perhaps create the 'autopilot' of the natural laws that govern the universe? This is the basic conviction of religious scientists (about one in three scientists believe in God, according to research) and ordinary people… Did God perhaps create the quantum laws, which allowed the Big Bang to happen? I do not want to offend any believer, but I think Science has a more convincing explanation, than that of a creator god!”
He does not elaborate for us, what the “more convincing explanation” is, because it simply does not exist! The “Big Bang” theory has not been proven scientifically, but continues to be one of the many theories regarding the “beginning of the world”, which is not accepted universally, and which in no way precludes the creation of the world by God!
It is obvious that Hawking's metaphysical views do not comprise scientific findings, but are in fact the personal perceptions and arbitrary dogmas to which he resorts, in order to reach the conclusion that he desires, namely, the “randomly” created Universe! It is why his metaphysical views have had (and still have) little resonance in the scientific world. They may quite possibly be externalizations and outbursts of his turbulent mental state, on account of his chronic disability...
Recently, a 15-year-old youth of Greek origin arrived on the scene; a child prodigy, as will become evident further along, who was to “agitate the waters” in the sphere of “militant atheism” and especially of Hawking’s fans. His name is William (Basil) Maillis and he is the son of a priest. According to a published report: “It was almost six years ago when William (Basil) Maillis had enchanted the audience at his graduation ceremony at Penn-Trafford High School in Pittsburgh, by reciting verses from the Bible in classical Greek and explaining excerpts by Descartes. He was just nine years old at the time. Four years ago, the young expatriate – characterized as a child prodigy from the age of five - graduated from Saint Petersburg College in Florida and was preparing to continue his studies at the University of South Florida, as he had told a local newspaper in an interview that he gave in the Greek Orthodox Church of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene – the parish of his priest-father, Fr. Petros Maillis, in the area of Tampa Bay. […] In August, the youngster will begin his studies in Physics, so that later - in the not so distant future - he can make a career in Astrophysics and work at NASA '.
Two years ago, the website upsocl.com published an extensive tribute to William, titled “13-year-old genius tries to prove Stephen Hawking wrong.” According to the publication, William believes that “God exists”. He said: “The first drink from the glass of natural science will make you an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you... because it is more logical that something had created the universe, rather than the universe had created itself!” (Source: in.gr) We will simply add that the “self-creation” of the cosmos is such an irrational belief, that it is refuted by statistical science, according to which, the 13,000,000,000 years of existence of the cosmos are incredibly insufficient for the conditions of Creation to have been “created” by chance - and more importantly, the conditions for the creation of life, (A. Antoniou, PhD in Astrophysics, “Life in the Universe, myth and reality”, 2009)!
It is a fact that atheistic exaggerations, disguised as Science, are nothing more than beliefs - and in fact beliefs far deeper than religious ones! The major Greek astrophysicist, the late Dimitrios Kotsakis, professor at the University of Athens in his study titled: “The pioneers of Science and the genesis of the world” (“Cosmological topics”, Athens 1976, p. 134), proclaims with the most celebratory manner the presence of God within all of Creation. He wrote: “Man's mind discerns in Creation the traces of God and his heart senses that he is living inside a divine atmosphere. But human words must cease – the upright words, which are often dry – and the whole man must speak, with all the forces of his soul and his being, in order to realize the presence of the One who was 'since the beginning... that everything was made by Him, and without Him, nothing was made which has been made” (John 1: 2, 3). In essence, he was repeating the divinely inspired word of the psalmist: “The heavens narrate the glory of God; and the makings of His hands are announced by the firmament” (Psalm 18: 1).
As the honorary judge of the Supreme Court Mr. Evangelos Andrianos had written: “Those who with the existing means of Science are unable to prove the contrary and who do not limit themselves to a theory, but instead state ‘I don’t believe’, they too are moving within the space of metaphysics – beyond the boundaries of Science. When Mr. Hawking states that he 'does not believe' and mocks those who do believe, it is he who has gone beyond the limits of his Science and is likewise moving in the field of metaphysics!'
Archibishop Kyrillos Kostopoulos, Doctor of Theology, notices the following about atheistic irrationality: “Man today has gone beyond the atheism of the Enlightenment and rationale’s supremacy, and has entered the space of the atheism of terror and despair. With everything that he thinks, expresses and does, he is actually proving that he has reached utmost absurdity and has bared himself of every disguise... The Orthodox course towards acceptance of God’s existence is a course – a way of life, and not of thought and logic. It is an experiential, in-humility relationship and acceptance, and not an egotistical and rationalistic understanding. 'Blessed is he, who has distanced himself from every hope according to this world, having solely God as his only hope.” ('Theological and Philosophical Approaches', Patras 2006, pp. 17-21)!
We regarded it our duty to comment on this important piece of news, by honouring a young Greek whose contribution to the field of Science is foreseen as a splendid one. We hope that this child, endowed by God with enlightenment and wisdom, will brighten the field of true Science and cleanse it of the foolish ideologies of atheists with their well-known hostility against faith in God and us believers!
We would also like to direct our readers to the work of our Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, which is posted gratis on the website of our Metropolis, (imp.gr), with the title: “Cosmos: Evolution or Creation? Chance, or unimaginable expediency? Natural Selection, or omniscient Divine Providence?” In it, we will find amazing facts, which absolutely support our humble words !!!
In closing, we wish to express our joy, because this enlightened and very intelligent young man has given witness of faith at a time of contemporary humanity’s complete alienation and flattening of everything. His marvelous case is reminiscent of the divinely inspired words of the Apostle Paul, that: “God chose the foolish things of the world to put the wise to shame; and God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty; and the base things of the world, and the things that are exhausted God chose; and also the nonexistent, in order to abolish the existent...” (1 Cor.1:21-28). In the present case, He chose a young child in order to put to shame an arrogant “wise” individual: the (world) famous Stephen Hawking – and his likewise arrogant peers!
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