By Bryan Appleyard

Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned scientist, has become famous for his non-belief in God.  He is considered to be one of the most intelligent people in the scientific world.  Added to that he is severely disabled and heroic in his struggle against illness.  We publish here a surprising answer to his stand by one of his fellow scientists.  This article will not be of interest to all, but to a small number it may be a godsend.

The year I met Stephen Hawking was 1988.  I was to write a profile for a magazine to appear at the time his book, A Brief History of Time, was published.  That book was to make him globally famous.  But then he was not well-known outside scientific circles.  The big story was, of course, that here was this brilliant physicist and cosmologist whose motor neuron disease confined him to a wheelchair and forced him to speak through a computer.  His wrecked body contrasted poignantly with his star-traveling imagination.