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Eminent British physicist Stephen Hawking has once more been ruffling a few feathers with his beliefs, or rather, his lack of belief in the hereafter.

In an interview published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK yesterday, the 69 year old physicist who was diagnosed with a form of motor neuron disease at the age of 21, made clear once more his lack of belief in the existence of heaven. In response to a question about his fear of death, Hawking responded:

"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," he told the newspaper.

"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 who are afraid of the dark."

Fact or fairy tale? Are you afraid of the dark?

To read the full article, click here. 

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Well known British astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking has warned recently in an interview with the Big Think website, that the human race must go out and colonize Space within the next couple of hundred years or face disappearing forever. Hawking believes that our only chance of long term survival as a species is to move away from our Earth and find new planets to inhabit.

In his synthesized voice Hawking said:

'I see great danger for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 is one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future. We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully. But I am an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries our species should be safe as we spread into space.’

Whereas the human genetic code that carries selfish and aggressive instincts was a necessary instinct for survival in the past, Hawking believes that this will make it difficult for the human race to avoid disaster in the future, and looking at one news report after another with the latest world news on hostilities, wars and future threats, it is a sentiment that perhaps many would tend to agree with.

 To listen to the whole interview click on the link below:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21691  

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Currently running on the Discovery channel at the moment is a new cosmology series called  'Into The Universe', with world famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking giving us the ultimate guide to the universe.

One suggestion that he makes (and one that I would also tend to agree with) is that in a universe with 100 billion galaxies, each containing many hundreds of millions of stars, it is highly unlikely that planet Earth is                                                                                                                    the only place where life has evolved.  

Not rocket science really - more a matter of common sense and logic!

According to Prof Hawking the only real challenge is in working out what the alien life forms might be like - from tiny microbes or little worms, through to something all together more advanced than mankind itself. And we should be warned he says as contact with alien life could spell disaster for the human race!

"If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the American Indians"

He could have a point but let's hope not!
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