Stephen Hawking on Heaven

I read in the paper this morning that Stephen Hawking said in a recent interview that heaven "is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." He believes that the brain is "a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers."

At the same time Pope Benedict is starting a new series of Wednesday audiences (May 5, May 11) on the subject of prayer. In the first he pointed to the universal religious nature of man at all times in man's history, quoting an ancient Egyptian prayer: "My heart desires to see you. . . You who made me see the darkness, create light for me, that I may see you! Bend over me your beloved face." The Pope continues, "That I may see you; here is the heart of prayer!"

The experience of darkness, and our yearning for light is, apparently, universal and deeply human. It is only the human being, it is said, who dies and knows that it dies. As the Egyptian prayer says, "You made me see the darkness." This brooding on death and the need to come to terms with it, is at the core of being human. Stephen Hawking, at 69, is no stranger to the topic. He remarked, "I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years." Still, like all of us, he wants to live: "I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first."

Is the religious longing for a "light in darkness" able to be fulfilled? Hawking may be right in saying no if he is right that we are essentially computers (machines), the parts of which eventually must break down. We know that computers don't last forever. Only something simple avoids that fate, because it has no parts to "de-compose." Is there such a thing? Our faith teaches that we can reasonably think of man as having a simple "soul" that makes us whole, makes us one, and that lives after the death of the body. That soul isn't man or nature-made, but created by God.

Who is right? Benedict elsewhere observed that medieval theologians sometimes described reason as having "a wax nose: in other words, it can be turned around in any direction." "Wounded by the Arrow of Beauty" in On the Way To Jesus Christ, p. 37. As a lawyer, that's my experience as well. You can make a really good sounding argument for almost anything. And the argument could be totally wrong.

As Christians we also have an example and a testimony in Jesus Christ, who died and was resurrected, as we celebrate in this Easter season. Is His promise of eternal life "reasonable"?

It seems the darkness of death cannot be penetrated by reason. No one can "see" to the other side. But one can trust, and trust in love. That move, it seems to me, is the only step that can penetrate the darkness, and transcend reason's impasse. It's very human to trust, and very reasonable, I believe.