In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, acclaimed astrophysicist and controversial personality Stephen Hawking shared his thoughts on death, purpose, and the meaning of life
“The belief that Paradise awaits us after death is just a fairy tale for those people who are afraid of death,” says the most prominent scientist in Great Britain, “the brain will simply stop working and that's it.”
At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic sclerosis, causing the inevitable paralysis and since then the disease has only progressed. Doctors predicted that she would kill him within a few years, but his desire to live was higher than this sentence.
“I still live these 49 years with the prospect of early death. I’m not in a hurry. Too much I still have to do. I believe that our brain is like a computer. It will stop working when the computer breaks. There is no Heaven or other afterlife for broken computers. These are just fairy tales for those who are afraid darkness.
In his latest book, published in 2010, The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking rejects the very idea of God's existence. The book caused an extremely strong negative reaction from many religious leaders.
In 2009, Hawking was very ill after a tour of lectures in the United States, but then returned to his work in Cambridge. He recommends a strict distinction between using the name of God as a metaphor and defining him as the Creator and Creator of all things.
In an interview with the Guardian, Hawking not only denied the existence of Paradise, but also doubted that human life on Earth has any purpose.
“We just have to strive to do as much as possible. That's all.
Then Stephen Hawking answered the question of what he sees the beauty of science and said that science is beautiful when it gives simple explanations of phenomena or connections between phenomena and cited the example of the DNA double helix and the basic equations of physics.
