Hawking proposed that the initial state of the universe was one of timelessness. Nothing ever happened; the universe just was. “The universe would be neither created nor destroyed. It would just be,” he wrote. Parmenides would be proud. Here is a modern scientific version of the universe of being. Ironically, Hawking put forward this idea during a conference in the Vatican, not yet knowing that it would have serious theological implications. For one thing, a universe that is neither created nor destroyed, that is, a universe that is uncreated, does not need a Creator. What would be the role of
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