Remembering Galileo And Stephen Hawking, Rationalists With A Scientific Temperament, In Times Of Unreasoning
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
8 January
2024
“I had no desire to share the fate of Galileo,
with whom I feel a strong sense of identity, partly because of the coincidence
of having been born exactly 300 years after his death!”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
By the
way, Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 and Galileo died on January 8,
1642!
(Left
Stephen Hawking, Right Galileo
----
Both the
geniuses were rationalists with a scientific temperament. In fact, if a person
is a rationalist, he's endowed with a scientific temperament.
Hawking was
a complete non-believer whereas Galileo was an agnostic who said, "I do
not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use " and, ''There
are those who reason well, but they are greatly outnumbered by those who reason
badly.” Yes, the world is full of those who reason badly and whose reasoning is
perennially flawed.
Just ponder
the life of Stephen Hawking, who spent most of his life on a wheelchair. Yet,
his spirit remained indomitable till he breathed his last. Never did he read
the Bible or pray to an imaginary god for some relief and respite in his
terribly handicapped existence. Nor did he curse himself for the supposed bad
karmas (!) in the previous birth/s just the way, majority of indoctrinated easterners
believe. Rather, he chose to contemplate on the enigmas and imponderables of
the Universe but never dwelt upon the inanities of god and idiocy of hell,
heaven and Afterlife.
Stephen
Hawking's whole life is a living example of a well-lived life sans god, faith
and books. The same can be said about Galileo who whispered before death,
"I don't know whether there's a god. But I know that I found fault with
his book." This is unwavering faith in oneself that needs no bolstering
from any damn god, scripture or faith.
Today, when
reasoning has completely gone from the lives of most of the humans across the
globe, when people still believe that a bearded sadist, called god, is angrily
looking at us even when we innocuously ogle at a lovely damsel or a well-hung
beef-cake, the exemplary lives of these two mavericks Hawking and Galileo
become even more awe-inspiring and relevant.
But can
minds, still stuck in the bygone eras of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Ten
Commandments and the desert of Arabia, think like these fearless greats?
Impossible.
-----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/galileo-hawking-times-unreasoning/d/131472