Brief Answers to the Big Questions

I loved this book! Any fan of Hawking's work should enjoy it, for sure. I really liked the "pondering" and "musing" pace and feel. I'd recommend it to anyone.@Diane... Whenever I encounter something to which I feel the need to respond, I’m usually pretty good at keeping my emotions at bay, and I sincerely try to (and, usually do) keep my cool, put myself into the other person’s shoes and think about my rebuttals logically. Over the years I’ve always felt a little guilty because, even though I’m amicable and nice most of the time, I just feel bad when I make someone else feel bad, regardless of how correct I might feel that I am. After seeing your comment, however, I really have to say congratulations… you’ve convinced me that I really shouldn’t be so hard on myself.Pathetic? I guess our definitions are a tad juxtaposed. I've always taken that word to mean "causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, or sorrow." It baffles me that you can throw the book at another human being, (one who had PLENTY of reasons to wallow in self-pity, mind you, but didn't) simply for disagreeing with you, and do so under the guise of "defending yourself," all the while implying a whine that these disagreements are an "attack" on your religion. To me, THAT is the self-pity party that fits more in line with the definition of "pathetic," wouldn't you agree? Scientific discoveries are no more responsible for attacking religion, or having a motive or agenda to remove your belief in God, than learning about gravity is responsible for children eventually coming to the conclusion that reindeer can’t fly. I’m sorry, Virginia, but we lied. I don’t know if you just simply can’t grasp how it appears to the outside world, but your comment does nothing more than make you look like a petulant toddler in a tantrum because you can’t have any ice cream, and THEN taking all of the ice cream and flushing it down the toilet to make sure no one else can have any. If the weather man conveys some data that it is probably going to rain tomorrow, do you start a revolution to rise up against the hidden agenda of meteorology to wipe the concept of picnics off the face of the Earth? Of course not, that would be ridiculous, right?Stephen Hawking was a brilliant man. He contributed so much to his field of science and had a genuine concern for the progression and well-being of humanity as a whole. I would honestly love to see your list of contributions toward bettering mankind. I have the sneaking suspicion that it would be just like mine, "pathetic." Have you actually read Hawking's work? Have you ever actually read any physics book? This is a problem in so many other areas of life and society, where someone knows “just enough to be dangerous.” You are a perfect example of this idiom in action, and your comment is perfectly indicative of someone learning what 2+2 is and then feeling they can successfully argue the elements of General or Special Relativity.You can’t berate atheists, or any nonbeliever for that matter, for being intelligent or knowledgeable about any topic, when you refuse to educate yourself with information that is freely available to, and very easily obtained by, anyone. Hearing someone whine that “you atheist’s just think that you’re sooooo smart,” gets old, really quickly. The real irony of it is that, compared to you, that statement admittedly holds some water. But as a general rule, there is nothing that you couldn’t understand yourself if you would quite simply take the time to learn about it. Instead of pointing and laughing at these ridiculous nonbelievers running around and learning stuff, I’d suggest that you push yourself way out of your comfort zone sometime and actually give it a try. You might surprise yourself.Look, all condescension aside, I know you have your beliefs. I know, from your perspective, Hawking is an expression of the things you feel are chipping away the the moral fabric of this world. You unknowingly got an honorary induction to my short list today, and with all of the misinformation I’ve seen lately, you just happened to be the lucky straw that broke the camel’s back, and for that, I’m sorry. I’m not going to change any of this, because I can’t lie and say I didn’t mean what I said, because I did. But, believe it or not, I do care about you and your position. And even though I’m an atheist, I very much want to live in a world where people can have faith and conviction about anything they want without having to prove it to the entire flippin' planet in order to feel justified in feeling the way they do, and more importantly, not condemn others for thinking differently. I’m not convinced that God exists, but if you are, then right on. I mean, I get it man, I used to be a Christian myself. You shouldn’t feel threatened by the world because it seems like it’s trying to take something away from you that you know full well cannot ever be taken from you. Let’s try to get this ship turned around and start acting like the amazing creatures we really are by helping each other move forward, instead of tearing each other down and holding up progress for the sake of making a point.The man who wrote this book did his part, now let's get out there and start doing ours. We can do this.I loved this book. Rest in peace, Stephen.

"There is no God. No one directs the universe," he writes in "Brief Answers to the Big Questions.""For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God," he adds. "I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature."

I am a big fan of Stephen Hawking, but it seems this book was rushed through. On Page 73 looks like who ever wrote this, does not have any idea about the structure of DNA. It says the two Chains in the helix are linked by nucleic acids and further mentions that there are four types of nucleic acids- adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine; these are actually called as bases. While as the actual nucleic acids are deoxribonucleic acid (DNA) and Ribinucleic acid(RNA).Also negative 270.4 degree Centigrade is equal to negative 454.7 degree F.

As a teenager with good grades in maths and science at school, "a brief history of time" seriously rocked my brain and made me fall in love with physics in the late 80s. Currently I hold a master's degree in physics and I am now in my mid 40s. I am thankful to Prof Hawkings for once again creating this masterpiece where he has summarized his life long research into a book so easy to understand and appreciate.Set your mind free and travel through the grand cosmic time and space as Prof Hawkings reveals answers to puzzles and paradoxes set to us by our universe. Does he have THE ANSWER? Maybe not but you can't go wrong getting some insights into the mind of one of the greatest pioneer in physics of our lifetime.

I don't know who actually wrote this book because it is a pure rambling of personal thoughts mixed with facts from all over literature and mixed with pure fiction. This book brings nothing to the reader. I know most of Hawking's previous work which was coherent but this book is completely different, hence my question mark on who actually wrote it.It seems more a last attempt to profit from Hawking's name.Highly not recommended !