The Grand Design

by Stephen Hawking

It is possible to turn that last statement into a scientific principle: our very existence imposes rules determining from where and at what time it is possible for us to observe the universe. That is, the fact of our being restricts the characteristics of the kind of environment in which we find ourselves. That principle is called the weak anthropic principle.

we must live in this era because it is the only era conducive to life.

although it is regarded with disdain among some physicists. The strong anthropic principle suggests that the fact that we exist imposes constraints not just on our environment but on the possible form and content of the laws of nature themselves.

We would therefore have to say that any complex being has free will—not as a fundamental feature, but as an effective theory, an admission of our inability to do the calculations that would enable us to predict its actions.

Bodies such as stars or black holes cannot just appear out of nothing. But a whole universe can.

Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

THE UNIVERSE HAS a design, and so does a book. But unlike the universe, a book does not appear spontaneously from nothing. A book requires a creator, and that role does not fall solely on the shoulders of its authors.