So Atheists: If your Stephen Hawking can believe in aliens, why can't we believe in God? What is so farfetched?

Your source of information is probably much better than mine. All I have to go on is a half page story cadged from Sky News about what Hawking is going to say in a forthcoming documentary. His vision of aliens is further evidence that real scientists lag behind science fiction writers in such matters.

He imagines that they might "exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet" and that they would only be interested in exploiting us as Columbus and his followers did the native Americans. I had a similar vision, and it wasn't so special. It starred Will Smith if I remember rightly and was called Independence Day.

I'm not sure Hawking is saying he believes in aliens. What he is saying is that he believes in the probability of aliens. "To my mathematical brain", he says, "the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational".

"Perfectly rational" is a trifle arrogant, but I accept what he says. Probability based on rational thought has to stand in place of evidence sometimes. Or we would never be able to speculate on the unknown.

Religious people do it all the time. They call it faith. I don't care if Hawking is a credible atheist icon or not.

I didn't even know that he was supposed to be one, and I am sure he wouldn't recognise that as his mission in life. His pronouncements about aliens might not be among the wisest things he has ever said, but I trust that in his life in science he has been a good person, trying his best in realms of thought that most of us wouldn't stand a chance of understanding. And he won't be around for much longer.

Love the man while you can, and if you are religious, pray for him.

I went into the link and I was disappointed by your conclusion. Btw. I am not an atheist.

Hawkins says that it is probable that there is alien life. He believes in statistics and probability as scientific methods, with no importance to how he rationally approaches spirituality. He does not make a conclusive statement about the existence or no existence of alien life.

He just stated that if such probability is materialized, that it would bring us trouble. There is no such thing as "Hawkins believing in aliens". How could he believe in aliens if he hasn't stated de facto the existence of aliens?

That is a paradox. If you want to pick on atheism, you should do a better job, not make a mockery of your logic.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.