Stephen Hawking vs. God

Stephen Hawking’s new book The Grand Design releases tomorrow, and this quote is already creating some buzz:

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.
It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.

James Anderson looks at the claims.
Here’s an excerpt:

If Hawking thinks there is some law or principle that explains the very existence of the universe, he must have in mind a metaphysical law rather than a physical law. Unless I’m much mistaken, the law of gravity is a physical law. It appears that Hawking intends to leave behind physics (a subject on which he is eminently qualified to speak) and enter the realm of metaphysics (a subject on which he has no particular expertise, so far as I know). It’s more than a little ironic therefore to find Hawking declaring on the very first page of his new book that “philosophy is dead.” If philosophy is dead, why is Hawking now turning his hand to philosophy? No, philosophy is in very good health, despite its frequent mistreatment at the hands of scientists. . . . Unfortunately even the best physicists aren’t immune to embarrassing themselves when they turn their hands to metaphysics—and they’re most at risk when it comes to religiously controversial topics.

You can read the whole thing here.
HT: Carl Trueman

An inconvenient eco-terrorist

Leftist principles are at odds with humanity

The hostage situation at the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., ended Wednesday with police taking the life of the apparent gunman, James L. Lee. This unhinged individual, inspired by the ideas of environmental extremists, believed that by terrorizing employees at the television network he would spark a change that would ultimately "save the planet." His problem was that he took far-left principles a bit too seriously.
Heavily influenced by Al Gore's apocalyptic film "An Inconvenient Truth," Lee saw mankind itself as the biggest threat to planetary survival. Lee logically concluded that reducing the number of human beings represented the only certain means of ending that threat. He took his anger out on the television network best known for its nature programming because it too often had shows that also glorified man's achievement. "All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions," Lee explained in the manifesto posted on his website, savetheplanetprotest.com.
Despite the network's extensive "green" programming, Lee could not forgive Discovery for shows like "Extreme Machines" and "Future Weapons" that he described as "glorifying of civilization and its machinery." Self-styled environmentalists frequently call for a return to nature and a rollback of society, placing the needs of obscure animal species above those of man. California homeowners, for example, can be prohibited from using firebreaks to protect their residences from wildfire because doing so allegedly would disturb the habitat of the Stephen's kangaroo rat, in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act.
The left's promotion of abortion likewise reflects the diminished value the movement places on human life. Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger embraced the same overpopulation theories of 19th-century scaremonger Thomas Malthus that Lee cited as inspiration. Hollywood productions like "The Day After Tomorrow" brought these ideas to life on the silver screen, showing the destruction purportedly caused by mankind's expansion over the planet.
Where Lee went wrong was in not following Mr. Gore's example. The Nobel laureate preaches the need for humanity to reduce its consumption, but he doesn't actually reduce his own. To the contrary, Mr. Gore's 9,000 square-foot Tennessee mansion consumes 12 times the amount of energy an average family home might use. Mr. Gore has even added a 6,500 square-foot palace in Montecito, Calif., to his collection of luxury estates. Nor do any of Mr. Gore's Gulfstream-flying Hollywood companions follow their own pronouncements about the need to reduce carbon footprints. This healthy hypocrisy does wonders to dispel the risk of dangerous activism on behalf of Mother Earth.
Some in the media have been desperate to paint Tea Party activists as espousing violence, pointing to one individual holding a hateful sign to tar the entire movement. Tea Party principles are inherently peaceful, but this isn't true of the environmental left. So long as this movement portrays mankind as a parasite and a danger, more Unabombers and Silver Spring gunmen will follow.
Washington Times

Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995

• Data for vital 'hockey stick graph' has gone missing
• There has been no global warming since 1995
• Warming periods have happened before - but NOT due to man-made changes

The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information.
Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost the relevant papers.
Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.
The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.
Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
The admissions will be seized on by sceptics as fresh evidence that there are serious flaws at the heart of the science of climate change and the orthodoxy that recent rises in temperature are largely man-made.
Professor Jones has been in the spotlight since he stepped down as director of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit after the leaking of emails that sceptics claim show scientists were manipulating data.
The raw data, collected from hundreds of weather stations around the world and analysed by his unit, has been used for years to bolster efforts by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to press governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
Mail Online

The lie unravels, but a leftist lying press and the Dems in congress press on to promote the lie. What a joke it is that Al Gore is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting lies. Public schools have brainwashed kids in an attempt to spread fear and the lie goes on. Leftist entertainers cant admit they were duped and press on in their politically correct thinking - stupid is as stupid does.

The "Science" Mantra by Thomas Sowell

Like anything valuable, science has been seized upon by politicians and ideologues, and used to forward their own agendas. This started long ago, as far back as the 18th century, when the Marquis de Condorcet coined the term "social science" to describe various theories he favored. In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels distinguished their own brand of socialism as "scientific socialism." By the 20th century, all sorts of notions wrapped themselves in the mantle of "science."
"Global warming" hysteria is only the latest in this long line of notions, whose main argument is that there is no argument, because it is "science." The recently revealed destruction of raw data at the bottom of the global warming hysteria, as well as revelations of attempts to prevent critics of this hysteria from being published in leading journals, suggests that the disinterested search for truth-- the hallmark of real science-- has taken a back seat to a political crusade.
An intercepted e-mail from a professor at the Climate Research Unit in England to a professor at the University of Pennsylvania warned the latter: "Don't any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act" and urged the American professor to delete any e-mails he may have sent a colleague regarding the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
When a business accused of fraud begins shredding its memos and deleting its e-mails, the media are quick to proclaim these actions as signs of guilt. But, after the global warming advocates began a systematic destruction of evidence, the big television networks went for days without even reporting these facts, much less commenting on them.
As for politicians, Senator Barbara Boxer has urged prosecution of the hackers who uncovered and revealed the e-mails! People who have in the past applauded whistleblowers in business, in the military, or in Republican administrations, and who lionized the New York Times for publishing the classified Pentagon papers, are now shocked and outraged that someone dared to expose massive evidence of manipulations, concealment and destruction of data-- and deliberate cover-ups of all this-- in the global warming establishment.
Today, politicized "science" has too big a stake in the global warming hysteria to let the facts speak for themselves and let the chips fall where they may. Too many people-- in politics and in the media, as well as among those climate scientists who are promoting global warming hysteria-- let the raw data on which their calculations have been based fall into the "wrong hands."
Townhall

Government-sponsored coercion

China: A study shows UN continues to underwrite China’s one-child policy | Alisa Harris

Associated Press

A mute woman must
 undergo sterilization before the government allows her to marry. A young woman hides her second child, buying a baby's corpse from an abortion clinic to convince family-planning officials her baby died. Christian villagers hide pregnant women and children from officials seeking to levy fines for transgressing China's population-control policies.

These are the stories the Population Research Institute discovered when it conducted a study of China's population policies in March and May. Its just-released study concludes that even in counties where a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) presence is supposed to preclude coercive policies, the abuse continues. PRI president Steve Mosher said: "We are funding a program of forced abortion and forced sterilization in China through the UNFPA."

UNFPA says it spent $6.8 million in China last year and that China has demonstrated "significant progress" in achieving UNFPA goals. President Bush banned U.S. funding of UNFPA and banned funding for groups that promote abortion overseas (known as the Mexico City policy). President Obama has revoked those decisions, and so far Congress is backing him up.

House and Senate committees have approved at least $50 million for UNFPA. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., failed in his efforts to pass a committee amendment reinstating the Mexico City policy, while the Senate Appropriations Committee passed an amendment backing its reversal. Both the House and the Senate generously funded family-planning programs, with the Senate Appropriations Committee allocating $628.5 million and the House increasing funding by 40 percent from 2008.

But pro-life members of Congress feel they have a chance to curtail abortion-related spending once the House and Senate confer to decide on a final budget draft. Smith told the House it was a "serious problem" to fund pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International: "They are American surrogates in foreign countries. They speak for us. They certainly don't speak and act for millions of pro-life Americans."

From World Magazine

EPA Scientist Told to Shut Up About Global Warming

And what was the EPA afraid would get out?

After reviewing the scientific literature that the EPA is relying on, Carlin said, he concluded that it was at least three years out of date and did not reflect the latest research. “My personal view is that there is not currently any reason to regulate (carbon dioxide),” he said. “There may be in the future. But global temperatures are roughly where they were in the mid-20th century. They’re not going up, and if anything they’re going down.”

Carlin’s report listed a number of recent developments he said the EPA did not consider, including that global temperatures have declined for 11 years; that new research predicts Atlantic hurricanes will be unaffected; that there’s “little evidence” that Greenland is shedding ice at expected levels; and that solar radiation has the largest single effect on the earth’s temperature.

Yeah, I guess that would have been inconvenient, especially as the President was pushing through his Cap-and-Trade energy fiasco to reduce greenhouse gas emmissions this week.

Read the whole article here