Here are some thoughts on Kathy’s post below.

Is a god necessary?  Stephen Hawking says no.

God did not create the universe, world-famous physicist Stephen
Hawking argues in a new book that aims to banish a divine creator from
physics.

Hawking says in his book “The Grand Design” that, given
the existence of gravity, “the universe can and will create itself from
nothing,” according to an excerpt published Thursday in The Times of
London.

“Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is
something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,”
he writes in the excerpt.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper [fuse] and set the universe going,” he writes.

His book — as the title suggests — is an attempt to answer “the Ultimate
Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything,” he writes, quoting
Douglas Adams’ cult science fiction romp, “The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to
the Galaxy.”

While the believers may not be able to prove the existence of god(s) we non-believers can’t really prove that a god(s) does not exist.  But what is a god?  Modern man has power and power toys that would have made him look like a god to the people as little as 200 years ago.  Although I don’t really believe a god is necessary I really have no reason to believe that our current theories of physics and cosmology are correct – in fact I doubt that they are.  Understanding the nature of the Universe may simply be beyond we naked apes.  Stephen Hawking is a brilliant man but probably all of his theories are wrong.  But the Universe, the solar system and the planet we call home were here before man created god and god will officially die along with the last man.

Religion is attractive for at least a three reasons:

• None of us likes to think that death is really the end.  Christianity gained real popularity among meso-Americans because their religion did not include eternal life.
• We all like to think we are special, something the Abrahamic religions are really good at.  It’s all about middle eastern tribalism – our tribe is the chosen tribe.
• An attempt to explain that which can’t be explained.

Ron can also be found at Newshoggers.