Monday, May 16, 2011

On Boring, Lonely Materialism



Said Stephen Hawking:
I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

How sad that a great mind like Hawking's can be, in the truly important things, so nihilistic, stunted and void of depth. It is incomprehensible how anyone could view the brain, and more importantly the human mind, with all of its mystery and proven potential for inspiration, vision and greatness, as nothing more than a computer. Greater minds, like William F. Buckley's, ask the question: Hamlet, J.S. Bach's Saint Matthew's Passion...What is the cause of inspiration that resulted in their creation? Can a solitary, computer chip fashion a Pieta, or The Last Judgement?

The article continues:
So if everyone is destined to power-down like computers at the end of their lives, what should humans do to lend meaning to their experience?

"We should seek the greatest value of our action," Hawking told the paper.

Again, how cold. "The greatest value of our action?" Someone should introduce Hawking to Pascal's Wager.

WFB on the existence of God. So refreshing and real after skimming the dry sermonizing of Hawking:

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