[dtf]

His PR team have already spun this as Hawking throwing down the gauntlet to religion, gleefully canvassing outrage and outright denial from Rabbis and Bishops.

Wiser theologians should take a step back, bring out that age old trick, and inquire "ah... but who created gravity?"

[samstokes]

And who created the creator?

The problem with an infinite regress is that it's, um, infinite.

It sounds like Hawking is trying to refute the claim that everything that exists must have a creator. That's the claim which allows the snooty "who created gravity" response, and also leads to the self-defeating infinite regress. Whether you believe in a creator or not, you're better off without that argument.

[henrikschroder]

You don't fool me. It's turtles all the way down!

[T-zex]

I like turtles!

[dtf]

It's not my argument. It's the god-of-the-gaps argument, hitherto to be found sitting lazily on that rather awesome gap called the big-bang, that Hawking is deftly refuting in his book. I'm just noting, with minor repulsion, the cheap tricks that his publisher seems to have used to turn this non-argument into an argument.

[samstokes]

Downvoters: why?