In a recent interview, Stephen Hawking, Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge, once again declared no afterlife can exist. According to him, heaven is simply "a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." Hawking would know about the threat of death, having been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in his early twenties. However, when asked what the purpose of life must be if there is nothing after death, Hawking responds, "we should seek the greatest value of our action." With this philosophy, Hawking acknowledges mankind as the authority that may apply worth to their own actions. On its face, this argument allows for complete relativism, the ultimate "to each his own" scenario. Such philosophy can poison the church. As Christians, Scripture must remain the foremost authority, our faith must remain Christocentric, for we know our actions have consequences and at the end of time "when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." -Matthew 25:31-32
Sample, Ian. "Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story.'" Guardian News, May 15, 2011.
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