The Daily Telegraph

There is no God or afterlife, Stephen Hawking says in his last book

- By Sarah Knapton SCIENCE EDITOR

In A Brief History of Time Professor Stephen Hawking was equivocal about the possibilit­y of a creator, stating that finding a complete theory of the universe would allow mankind to “know the mind of God”.

But in his final book, which is published today, the astrophysi­cist is clear. There is no God. Or an afterlife. And certainly no heaven. Shortly before his death, Prof Hawking began compiling the answers to 10 fundamenta­l questions which he had been asked frequently by readers since the publicatio­n of A Brief History of Time in 1988.

They include “Is time travel possi- ble?”, “Should we colonise space?” and “Is there a God?”. Answering the final question just months before his death, he said he had come to the “profound realisatio­n” that there was no afterlife or supreme being. “We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanatio­n is that there is no God,” he said.

“No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realisatio­n: there is probably no heaven and afterlife either. I think belief in the afterlife is just wishful thinking.

“There is no reliable evidence for it, and it flies in the face of everything we know in science. I think that when we die we return to dust. But there is a sense we live on, in our influence, and in the genes we pass to our children.”

Speaking at the launch of the book at the Science Museum in London, his daughter Lucy Hawking said that despite his lack of faith, her father would not mind being buried in Westminste­r Abbey.

“We think he would have been very honoured to take his place in history. He never liked to be alone, he always wanted to be in the centre of everything, and I like to think that he would find his final resting place between Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin and he would never be alone again.”

The cosmologis­t, who had motor neurone disease and died in March, had his final public thoughts broadcast at the event, ending with an emotional address to younger generation­s.

Miss Hawking was asked how if felt to hear her father once again. “It was very emotional. I turned away because I had tears forming in my eyes.”

Her brother Timothy said that while reading the new book he could hear his father’s voice “leaping off the page”.

Brief Answers to the Big Questions is published by John Murray, priced £14.99.

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