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On Monday, Stephen Hawking -- the only theoretical physicist famous enough to have guest-starred on The Simpsons -- declared his belief that a heaven or afterlife is scientifically impossible, calling notions of heaven "a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." The world-renowned scientist has frequently stated his agnostic beliefs in the past, but that's not going to stop Kirk Cameron from arguing with him now.
That's right -- Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron. The erstwhile '80s sitcom heartthrob is now a committed Christian evangelist who co-founded his own ministry in 2002. And he doesn't just think that Stephen Hawking is wrong; he thinks that not believing in God is bad science.
"Professor Hawking is heralded as 'the genius of Britain,' yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything and that life sprang from non-life," Cameron tells TMZ. "Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking's writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?"
If you're confused, it's probably because you believe in evolution or something. Cameron is using an argument popular with the "intelligent design" crowd: that there's no way the universe could have come into existence on its own, without a creator. Like many intelligent design proponents, Cameron also suggests that science isn't objective fact, but just another form of religion. He explains this to TMZ by reciting lyrics to the John Lennon song "Imagine."
"(Hawking) says he knows there is no heaven," Cameron explains. "John Lennon wasn't sure. He said to pretend there's no heaven. That's easy if you try. Then he said he hoped that someday we would join him. Such wishful thinking reveals John and Stephen's religious beliefs, not good science."
In Hawking's defense, he hasn't said that God doesn't exist -- only that science does not require God to explain the workings of the universe. And Cameron's entitled to his beliefs as well -- but couldn't he have left John Lennon out of this whole thing?
