Pope Advised Hawking Not to Study Origin of Universe

BlueCup submits a link to an Associated Press article running in the Northwest Florida Daily News which begins "Famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God. The British author, who wrote the best-seller 'A Brief History of Time,' said that the pope made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican." According to the article, "The scientist then joked during a lecture in Hong Kong, 'I was glad he didn't realize I had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo.'"

Next up...

[evileyetmc]

Pope Palpatine will advocate not studying conception...since it is an act of God. Great. Guess my girlfriend won't be putting out.

The Inquisition

[Kamineko]

The Inquisition can't come for Hawking now: he's expecting it!

Re:Flawed Logic

[elrous0]

George W. Bush says that God did it. Good enough for me.

-Eric

From TFA:

[blackbeaktux]

[FROM TFA]...he had one more great ambition: "I would also like to understand women."

The Vatican was unavailable for comment.

Re:The Inquisition

[slashbob22]

No one EVER expects the Inquisition, even Hawking.

During the meeting

[Billosaur]

Pope, speaking in bad Italian accent: Yeah, you see, it's like this Mr. Hawking... the beginning of everything... that's God's work... he wouldn't be too pleased if you found out too much about what he did... he's very private that way... he tends to get upset easily... and we wouldn't want anything to say, happen to you... you wouldn't want to end up in a wheelchair or nothin'... oh wait...

Re:Hardly news

[Tx]

You got there before me. Well, Hawking once believed that time would reverse when the universe started contracting towards the big crunch, so this would have been news on the way back down the timeline ;).

ask any person of "faith"

[Lord Ender]

It's turtles all the way down.

Re:Hardly news

[dr_dank]

Agreed The real news is that the Inquisition finally caught up with Galileo. I'll submit the story right away!

Re:Hardly news

[jawtheshark]

Ah, that is why lots of drops of coffee from my computer screen just magically jumped in my mouth! ;-)

Re:The Inquisition

[91degrees]

Ah, but he knows they can't come, becasue they're expected so they're unexpected. Which means they can come. Except Hawking obviouslyt expects them to know they're expected and therefore unexpected, so he should probably expect this.

Re:So?

[John Nowak]

in the end only kindness matters.

Thanks Jewel.

Re:Flawed Logic

[Kiaser Zohsay]

As far as they're concerned, they're using their God given brain to study how God does His thing.

A biology professor I once met was fond of saying that if you study biology in long enough, you will find not only that God exists, but He has a sense of humor.

Re:From TFA:

[dargon]

[FROM TFA]...he had one more great ambition: "I would also like to understand women."

Him and every other man on the planet

Re:From TFA:

[Rob T Firefly]

Next in TFA: Where did we come from?

Annnd, it's back to the women again...

Re:Wow. This is really, really old.

[Mayhem178]

What are you talking about? Sir Isaac Newton didn't discover gravity. Al Gore did.

Re:Flawed Logic

[larkost]

You don't have to study very much, just have a good long look at your own reproductive organs. After all, as the joke goes: "God must be a civil engineer, who else but a civil engineer would put a waste water outlet through a recreational facility?".

Re:Wow. This is really, really old.

[oni]

So, if I read a ten, fifteen, maybe thirty-year-old book, can I submit quotes from it as news, too?

Well, maybe Hawking himself submitted this, and it just took him this long to... type... it... with... his... little... clicker... thing...

Re:The Inquisition

[blackbeaktux]

Um, no. He's British

It's true. His speech synthesis machine just has an American accent [per TFA] because he had the "British Charm Unit" module removed from the system. He's now just sounds like a Boorish American Clod. He could've kicked your ass from here to Alberqu..ere..q.....e

(I hope you get this)

Deep Believer

[smvp6459]

I for one, wholeheartedly embrace the concept of design... [ishkur.com]

Re: From TFA:

[Black Parrot]

> > [FROM TFA]...he had one more great ambition: "I would also like to understand women."

> The Vatican was unavailable for comment.

They were willing to talk; they just didn't know anything about the subject matter.

Re:Flawed Logic

['nother poster]

The problem is he built the recreational facility on the existing waste water plants property, so it sounds like he's a speculation developer rather than an engineer. "Hell, this place will be so much fun they will come no matter how bad it smells."

Re:Hardly news

[kin_korn_karn]

good idea, nobody will expect that

Re:grammar nazi moment...(sorry)

[B3ryllium]

Kind of like "Moose", which stems from Canadian Latin ... ;-)

Re:Flawed Logic

[Xymor]

Yeah, but please BUY his book, don't rip-off God's royalties. Otherwise he might not be discouraged to create other universes.

swen yldraH:eR

[Hoi Polloi]

!gnineppah si ti ,on hO

swen yldraH:eR

[LanMan04]

.); enilemit eht nwod kcab yaw eht no swen neeb evah dluow siht os ,hcnurc gib eht sdrawot gnitcartnoc detrats esrevinu eht nehw esrever dluow emit taht deveileb ecno gnikwaH ,lleW .em erofeb ereht tog uoY
 

Re:Hardly news

[bradkittenbrink]

well, we certainly didn't expect that either...

Ah incest time

[SmallFurryCreature]

First you crawl back up into your mother then are sucked out of there by your dad. Wonderfull. I hope they have shrinks in the pre-life.

Re:swen yldraH:eR

[Peldor]

Damnit, how long to I have to wait to get to be the first post?

Re:Ah incest time

[NanoGator]

"First you crawl back up into your mother then are sucked out of there by your dad. Wonderfull. I hope they have shrinks in the pre-life."

What about Santa Claus? What a bastard! He's just a big fat git who sneaks down chimneys and steals all the kids' favorite toys!

Re:Hardly news

[Schemat1c]

....was trialled on heresy by Roman Inquisition

Cue a bunch of guys in togas bursting into the room.

"Hey, I expected the Spanish Inquisition!"

Peer Review in Religion?

[Anonymous Coward]

So in other words, you're saying that God only had one publication (the Bible), which included no citations of prior work and would not hold up under peer review.

Re:Ah incest time

[Anonymous Coward]

What about Santa Claus? What a bastard! He's just a big fat git who sneaks down chimneys and steals all the kids' favorite toys! ...after they joyfully wrap them up for him...

Sometimes he leaves cookies, too.

Re:Ah incest time

[Anonymous Coward]

"...then are sucked out of there by your dad."

If this image bothers you then I strongly suggest that you never play a porn movie backwards. It is very disturbing to see semen fly out of a woman's mouth into a guy's penis.

Ob: Red Dwarf

[Anonymous Coward]

KRYTEN: Take war. War is a wonderful thing here! In fifty years
time, the second world war will start-- backwards!

CAT: And that's a good thing?

KRYTEN: Millions of people will come to life. Hitler will
retreat across Europe, liberate France and Poland, disband the
Third Reich, and bog off back to Austria!

RIMMER: We're smash hits here! We'd be crazy to leave.

LISTER: Rimmer, we don't belong here! This place is crazy!

RIMMER: Crazy? Death, disease, famine--there's none of that
here.

  KRYTEN: There's no crime! The first night we were here, a
mugger jumped us and forced 50 pounds into my wallet at
knifepoint!

LISTER: Okay, okay! But look at the flipside of the coin. It's
not all good. Take someone like, say... St. Francis of Assissi.
In this universe, he's the petty-minded little sadist who goes
around maiming small animals! Or Santa Claus--what a bastard!

RIMMER: Eh?

LISTER: He's the big fat git who sneaks down chimneys and
steals all the kid's favorite toys!