Stephen Hawking tackles Creation on 'Curiosity' -
The most famous scientist in the world, Stephen Hawking, has never avoided the big questions, from the nature of time to the fate of the universe.
The most famous scientist in the world, Stephen Hawking, has never avoided the big questions, from the nature of time to the fate of the universe.
But that was just a warm-up. Now he is squaring off with God.
Hawking will kick off Curiosity, the Discovery Channel's weekly look (Sunday, 8 p.m. ET/ PT) at what research says about life's big questions. It starts on Aug. 7., with an epsode entitled, "Is There a Creator?" Afflicted with a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) while young and now paralyzed, Hawking speaks with the aid of a voice synethesizer, and a narrator on the show.
"I recently published a book that asked if God created the universe. It caused something of a stir," Hawking, 69, begins on the episode. (The "stir", in fact, was religious leaders denouncing his book's conclusion that God was unnecessary to the universe.) On the show, he takes viewers on a walk through humanity's history of appraising our place in the universe, from Vikings facing down eclipses to the laws of modern cosmology, which explain the origin and structure of universe. "I believe the discovery of these laws is mankind's greatest achievement," he says.
Much of the show revolves around themes from last year's look at the cosmos, The Grand Design, written by Hawking with physicist Leonard Mlodinow. Pictured on the cover of the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists withAlbert Einstein and Marie Curie, Hawking is scientifically best known for "Hawking radiation," his revelation that black holes are hot (or very cold for the big ones) and small black holes rapidly radiate away their heat to finally evaporate.
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