Hawking's New Book: No God Just Physics

Hawking sure has been on a tear -- insulting aliens and pronouncing no god. Yikes. The people who fear that he is right will get all bent out of shape:

God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book.

In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity. Guardian

Here he is on aliens from other planets:

If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet." ABC

Where I think he goes wrong -- I'm about to disagree with a genius -- is he's suggesting we're intelligent life. Intelligence is much more than math and science or building space ships. Human kind isn't intelligent. We're overrated as a species. Any other life form that could possibly be out there has to be smarter than us. In the scheme of the universe, we're probably the lowest ranked life form. We haven't even figured out how to live on the planet without killing and maiming each other. If we could do that, then we'd be intelligent.

I am going to read his book, though. It sounds fascinating.