The world famous scientist and cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking, has dismissed heaven as a “fairy story for people afraid of the dark”.
The 69 year-old author of a ‘Brief History of Time,’ was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, and has far outlived the life expectancy given him by doctors shortly after the diagnosis.
Hawking insisted his incurable illness has helped him enjoy life more and that he is “not afraid of death”.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Prof Hawking not only rejected the idea of life beyond death, but also emphasised the need to fulfil our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives.
"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years,” Hawking informed The Guardian.
“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.”
When Hawking was asked how we should live he replied: "We should seek the greatest value of our action."
Hawking has previously argued that if there was a God, it certainly could not be a ‘personal’ God.
When interviewed by Channel 4 last year, Hawking made clear his position.
"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.
“If you like, you can call the laws of science 'God', but it wouldn't be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions."
Various religious leaders have challenged Hawking’s theories with Reason To Believe research scholar Dr. Jeffrey Zweerink saying:
“A fundamental flaw in this Hawking idea is that God is no longer personal, and yet we human beings are personal. We have a mind, we have a spirit, and you’re attributing the development of the human mind, the human spirit, the minds for that matter we see in the higher animals, the personalities that we see in all of us from completely impersonal soul-less and spirit-less laws of physics. How can the lesser produce the greater?”