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Topic: Stephen Hawking, Dead at 76 Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Ted Downum
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Joined: 21 April 2004
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 7:36am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

A great loss. I hated that this was the very first news I heard today.

He had a respectably long and incredibly productive life, though--by any standards, let alone for someone diagnosed early with ALS.

Rest in peace.


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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 8:02am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

 John Byrne wrote:
Brace now for all those people eager to misinterpret what he said and wrote, in order to "prove" he believed in God.

This showed up on my Facebook feed:

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Kevin Brown
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 8:05am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Definitely a sad day.  A huge loss of a great mind.

And, not sure how many know this, but he was given only 2 years to live.....  55 years ago.
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Conrad Teves
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 8:21am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

A sad day, to be sure.

On the occasion of his passing (if you have 12 minutes to spare) it bears listening to this set of anecdotes about Hawking from physicist Sean Carroll.  Stories about his interactions with Hawking and a life-lesson he drew from him:
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Wilson Mui
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 9:22am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

My favorite quote of his:

“I have noticed that even those who assert that everything
is predestined and that we can change nothing about it
still look both ways before they cross the street.”
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Gundars Berzins
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 9:31am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Sad news. A bright light is now gone.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 10:47am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Hawking was one of those scientists -- and there are many -- who use God as a metaphor. Believers don't get that, since they find nothing metaphorical in their invisible friend in the sky. And it did not help that he titled one of his books THE GRAND DESIGN.
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 10:49am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I've heard some say the same about Charles Darwin. I don't know of many Darwin quotes - or whether he used G*d as a metaphor - but there are no shortage of people (online) who claim he was a believer.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 11:25am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Time and circumstance forced Darwin to end his ORIGIN OF SPECIES with an acknowledgment of the devine. No publisher would have touched it, otherwise.

In private correspondence he confirmed he was an atheist.

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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 11:40am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Ah, I see. Thanks. Can't say I have read extensively on Darwin's life/quotes, but I do know that I was very distrustful of religious folk making claims about him! 
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Charles Valderrama
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Condolences to his friends and family.... what a great loss.

-C!
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Dale Lerette
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Posted: 14 March 2018 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Brace now for all those people eager to misinterpret what he said and wrote, in order to "prove" he believed in God. _____________________________________



*Crickets Chirping*

Edited by Dale Lerette on 14 March 2018 at 12:19pm
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