Why Hate Stephen Hawking?

A lot of the ideas the emanate from the political Right currently, such as denial of global warming, advocacy of Creationism (and creationism disguised with different names), opposition to evolution, etc., can be characterized as anti-science. They show a distrust of science and a lack of respect for science. A lack of understanding of how science works, what a scientific theory is, the nature of scientific evidence.

Recently there was an item on Huffington Post about Stephen Hawking, the British physicist, cosmologist, and former Cambridge University professor who has a neurological disease "related to" ALS (aka "Lou Gehrig's disease"), is confined to a wheel chair, and can "speak" only with the aid of an electronic device.

Now, Stephen Hawking is widely regarded as one of the leading thinkers of our time. I remember when I first became aware of him, in the 1970s. I was working with the astronomical community, and Hawking was then regarded as a very promising and rising young scholar. In the years since, he has received numerous awards and has written several books for a popular audience such as A Brief History of Time, which was a runaway best-seller.

Yet, to my very considerable surprise, the comments on the Huffington Post piece about him very largely blasted Hawking. I'm at a loss as to why he should have a negative image amongst the Joe Six-Packs. I can't understand what is political or controversial about his scientific ideas, which may not be very widely understood. It might have to do with comments he has made that appear to be anti-religion. (For example, he has said, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing.") And in this, the most religious of the Western, developed countries, that might not go down very well. I also suspect that this is part of the long-standing strain of animosity to science in America.

That might be viewed in part as a contemporary problem, lack of scientific literacy due in turn to failures of the American educational system. Or it can be viewed as a historical problem, only the latest manifestation of a strain of American thought that goes back a long ways.

Some of the "Founding Fathers" of this country, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, might be considered amateur scientists. Everybody knows of Franklin's famous experiment with the kite, by which he demonstrated that lightning is electrical in nature. And Jefferson did considerable experimentation in agriculture—among his wide intellectual interests.

On the other hand, a lot of American ideas and ideals—maybe I should say mythology—developed along with the settling of the West, the movement of pioneers to the frontier; an ideology arose which glorified the individual, the ordinary man, the humble man, the man with little formal education. According to Wikipedia, "Culturally, the ideal American was a self-made man whose knowledge derived from life-experience, not an intellectual man, whose knowledge derived from books, formal education, and academic study."

Also, religious movements that arose in America emphasized religion and religious experience over reason, rationality, learning, science. And even if some of these trains of thought arose 100 or 150 years ago, I think we still have their legacy, just as we still have a "Wild West" ideology that glorifies guns, aggression, and people shooting one another.

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein