God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse: What Hawking said and why it matters

by David Hutchings, David Wilkinson

'If you wanted to understand Stephen Hawking but couldn't face the maths, this is the book for you.' - Dr Althea Wilkinson, Jodrell Bank

Stephen Hawking kept breaking rules. Given two years to live, he managed another 54. He wrote about quantum cosmology - and sold 20 million books. He could not speak, yet the world recognized his voice.

Hutchings and Wilkinson shine light on his extraordinary ideas. The result is a story of black holes, origins, many universes, and Big Questions.

'Remarkable.' - Professor Christine Done, Durham University

'Highly recommended.' - Dr Luke Barnes, author, The Cosmic Revolutionary's Handbook

'A warm and well-balanced portrait of Stephen Hawking and his seminal contributions to our understanding of the universe.' - Professor Reed A. Guy, Seattle University, USA

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2020

Reviews

[Aidan McDonagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting 'Lehman's terms' look at Hawking's work and how it fits with the progression of science up to and since that point. Meaty topics such as gravity, quantum mechanics, general relativity and mysterious black hole radiation are all explored in here, in a coherent and historically interesting way. Some interesting points around the God debate such as the anthropic principle and fine tuning, but this seems largely a tack-on to what is mainly a book about the joy, wonder and surprise of physics, not an apologetics defense.

I was surprised to read of Hawking's bold claims about philosophy being dead (didn't realise it was he who said that) and his subscription to the quite post-modernist-esque concept of 'model-dependent realism'. Also of note was Hawking's mind-boggling 'no boundary' proposal which proposes a non-singularity based start to the universe, or multiverse as it would consequently be, incorporating infinite universes, each with a different set of possible outcomes.

Overall a hugely enjoyable and readable historical discourse on the progression of physics and the associated big questions, from Aristotle to Copernicus, and from Newton to big current Christian thinkers such as John Lennox.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ganesha and the universe

First 5 chapters a joy, well written, well thought out, fabulous insights , complex science made accessible to lay readers, then slowly sneaks Yaweh in, chapters 6 & 7 some vague musing , last chapter - 8 goes out with a big whimper rather than a Big Bang.

Ends woefully with quoting one author (Page) saying tada “I think Jesus” yada yada.

Same book could have been written with “Insert whatever god here “ & the science

[Glen Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun read.

I read this over the course of a day. I loved the way history was woven into the thesis. It is very good and very respectful of Stephen Hawking. Don't forget to read the two indexes. I must have posted ten excerpts from this book on my Twitter feed.

I knew a lot of the early stuff on QM. Some of the QR STUFF WAS new. It was all clear and easy to understand. It is very high level but informative. I loved the book. But it!

[Ian Sarginson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took three topics that I struggle to begin to understand and helped me to understand them a little better.
Hugely complex concepts explained in a way that was accessible and engaging.
Superbly written and very thought provoking.

[Matthew Lemley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise, and on point.

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hutchings and Wilkinson walk through the work of Stephen Hawking concerning quantum mechanics and how he worked out the radiation produced by black holes. The majority of this book is essentially a history lesson on quantum mechanics and general relativity, and I must admit it was difficult to follow at times. The authors try to make it understandable for readers with visuals, but these are of little help when examining the theories at hand. The last few chapters of the book walk through how Hawking argued the existence of the universe is just one of many in the multiverse. The authors show how many feel this is not accurate based off of the fact that many reject the “no-boundary proposal” that led Hawking to this conclusion. The last couple of chapters may be the most valuable as the authors critique the multiverse theory and propose a new question to readers that they feel Hawking never wrestled with, who did Jesus say he was? A great read and surprisingly interesting and entertaining.

Warning: May need a crash course in physics before reading in order for it to make more sense.

[Sourav Mukherjee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book starts off well, with explaining a lot of history behind scientific discoveries to create a ground work for Hawking's research. One good thing, that I liked in this phase is the anecdotal examples or stories that goes with every notion.

However, to me, the book started going downhill when later on the authors started talking about the 'Big Questions'. Though for the most parts of the authors restrained themselves to put their own commentary, but I think in the later part of this book, they couldn't stop themselves and the languid commentary seemed biased to me.

There have been a good number of documents describing the 'God' situation with the scientists like, Einstein, Hawking etc. It would be great if the authors would have referenced them in this book since the context is same.

[Paul Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse is a balanced look at his ground-breaking ideas. Hutchings clearly examines his work and relates it to the Christian God. As you might expect, some of the ideas are quite complex but still makes it very readable. For such a scientific book, Hutchings manages to intertwine some relevant and entertaining anecdotes.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read. I didn't follow much of it but I did learn a lot. It help me appreciate the wonder of the universe and helped me understand how much we know about it but how little. And encouraging to know that clever scientists can be theists (and even Christians) when so much in the media assumes science and theism don't mix.

[Harriet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good, although I would have preferred there to have been more links between the science and the philosophy - as the science was in some cases hard to grasp. The philosophy towards the end of the book and dotted within was very interesting.

[Jacob O'connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't pretend to understand Hawking's science, but Wilkinson helps me understand how modern cosmology undermined our faith in philosophy.  So much of the things we thought we can count on get weird when under close scrutiny.  Relativism to relativism.  

[Sølvi Goard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off so well and then became a damn squib when actually trying to contemplate the "big questions".

[Antonio Matta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first five chapters are great, the rest is simple and plain far-right Christian propaganda. Not recommended if you are interested in Stephen Hawking's work.