호킹 “천국•사후세계? 꾸며낸 동화일 뿐”
Stephen Hawking says afterlife is a fairy story
英 가디언紙와 인터뷰… “죽음 이후 뇌는 고장난 컴퓨터” 주장 논란 일 듯
문화일보 | 고서정기자 | 입력 2011.05.16 12:01 | 수정 2011.05.16 12:11 | 누가 봤을까? 40대 남성, 대전
세계적인 물리학자 스티븐 호킹(69•사진)박사는 15일 영국 일간 가디언과의 인터뷰에서 "천국이나 사후 세계가 우리를 기다리고 있다는 믿음은 죽음을 두려워하는 자들이 꾸며낸 '동화'에 불과하다"면서 "죽기 직전 마지막으로 뇌가 깜빡거리는 순간 이후에는 어떤 것도 없다"고 말했다.
대표적 무신론자인 호킹 박사는 부속품이 고장나면 작동을 멈추는 컴퓨터에 인간의 뇌를 비유하면서 "고장난 컴퓨터에 천국이나 사후 세계가 있을 수 없다"고 설명했다.
이러한 그의 발언은 신의 존재를 부정해 2010년 출간되자마자 뜨거운 논쟁을 불러일으켰던 저서 '위대한 설계'의 내용보다 진일보한 것으로 논란이 예상된다.
'위대한 설계'는 '우주는 중력의 법칙과 양자이론에 따라 무(無)에서 만들어진 것이며 어떤 초자연적인 존재나 신의 개입을 필요로 하지 않는다'는 주장을 담고 있어 종교계와 과학계의 뜨거운 논쟁을 불러일으킨 바 있다.
그는 "과학은 우주가 무에서 창조됐다는 것을 설명한다"면서 "우주는 과학에 의해 지배받는다"고 강조했다. 그는 또 "다윈의 진화론을 효과적인 이론으로 활용하고 거기에 높은 가치를 부여해야 한다"면서 "과학은 현상이나 다른 관찰 대상 사이의 연관성을 간략하게 설명해낼 때 가장 아름답다"고 말했다.
'어떻게 살아야 하는가 라는 질문'에 대해 호킹 박사는 "우리 행동의 가장 위대한 가치를 추구해야 한다"며 "우리의 삶을 제대로 활용해 우리의 잠재력을 달성해야 한다"고 강조했다.
21세 때부터 몸 속의 운동신경이 파괴되는 루게릭병을 앓아왔던 그는 "지난 49년동안 죽음을 생각하며 살아왔다"며 "죽음을 두려워하지는 않지만 하고 싶은 것들이 너무 많아 죽음을 서두르지 않는다"고 밝혔다.
고서정기자 himsgo@munhwa.com
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Stephen Hawking says afterlife is a fairy story
By Liz Goodwin Mon May 16, 11:07 am ET
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently explained his belief that there is no God and that humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth.
Guardian writer Ian Sample asked Hawking if he feared death in a story published yesterday. This was his response:
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.
Hawking's 1988 book "A Brief History of Time" sold 9 million copies, and in it Hawking referenced God metaphorically as the force that could fully explain the creation of the universe.
But in 2010, Hawking told Diane Sawyer that "science will win" in a battle with religion "because it works."
"What could define God [is a conception of divinity] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."
Hawking's latest book, "The Grand Design," challenged Isaac Newton's theory that the solar system could not have been created without God. "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 ... set the Universe going," he writes.
Hawking was diagnosed with the degenerative Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 21. He lost his power of speech and for decades has talked through an electronic speech synthesizer. The device has allowed him to continue his research and attain a top Cambridge research post, which was previously held by Newton. His most famous theory explains how black holes emit radiation, according to The Guardian.
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?
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"Religious views of Stephen Hawking"
In his early work, Hawking spoke of "God" in a metaphorical sense, such as in A Brief History of Time: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God." In the same book he suggested the existence of God was unnecessary to explain the origin of the universe. His 2010 book The Grand Design and interviews with the Telegraph and the Channel 4 documentary Genius of Britain, clarify that he does "not believe in a personal God". Hawking writes, "The question is: is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can't understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second." He adds, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing."
His ex-wife, Jane, said during their divorce proceedings that he was an atheist. Hawking has stated that he is "not religious in the normal sense" and he believes that "the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws." Hawking compared religion and science in 2010, saying: "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority [imposed dogma, faith], [as opposed to] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."
In an interview published in The Guardian newspaper, Hawking regarded the concept of Heaven as a myth, stating that there is "no heaven or afterlife" and that such a notion was a "fairy story for people afraid of the dark." should seek the greatest value of our action," Hawking told the paper.
