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http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/03/hawking.god.universe.criticisms/index.html?hpt=C1>
>I don't really have a dog in the fight here, but I wonder (probably shouldn't aloud) how much influence/prominence Stephen Hawking would have if he weren't crippled.
Not that I agree with him, but it is not just that he is crippled. I understand he is one of the leading experts on black holes. It was he who discovered that (theoretically) black holes should gradually evaporate - his calculations have been confirmed by others, and the corresponding (very weak) radiation is now usually know as Hawking radiation (or Bekenstein-Hawking radiation).
Even though he has no openly declared himself as an atheist, I still think he is one of the leading minds in certain areas.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
