You may have heard that Stephen Hawking, the most respected theoretical physicist since Einstein, has written that he does not believe God created the universe. In his new book, The Grand Design, he says, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.”
This has been high on my list of things to think about this week. It comes right under my thoughts about how I can keep crabgrass from taking over my lawn. I have to be honest: I don’t know what Hawking means when he says that the universe can create itself from nothing “because there is a law such as gravity.” As she reported this story, Robin Mead, CNN Headline News host, asked the best question: “Who made gravity?”
It seems to me that Dr. Hawking is making a faith statement of his own. He certainly cannot prove that nothing comes from nothing because of gravity. That is purely his statement of his belief. And we can be grateful that he is not saying, “Those who believe in God as the Creator should give up their faith.”
So we will go on trusting in God as revealed to us in Jesus as our Creator and Savior and friend. We will allow any theoretical physicist who wants to believe in the creative power of gravity to have his or her faith. It is sad though. Dr. Hawking is missing out on the hope we have in God the Creator who “has a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). We will celebrate our faith in Christ who, as Paul says in Colossians 1:15-16 “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible”. . . , things like gravity.
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