Renowned Physicist Stephen Hawking's Unwavering Stance on Life After Death

In the years leading up to 2025, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who passed away in 2018, had maintained an unwavering stance on the non-existence of heaven or an afterlife. Born in 1942, Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) at just 21 years old and was given only two years to live. However, he went on to defy the odds, living for over 50 more years and becoming one of the longest-surviving motor neurone disease patients on record.

Despite his physical limitations, Hawking's mind remained sharp, and he continued to work, teach, and share his ideas with the world through a computerized speech system. When it came to questions of God, heaven, and life after death, Hawking's answers were as direct as his scientific reasoning. He firmly rejected the notion of an afterlife, stating that "there is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers" and that belief in such things was "just wishful thinking."

In his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, published posthumously in 2018, Hawking also warned of the potential dangers of advanced artificial intelligence (AI), cautioning that the "development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." He believed that as AI becomes more intelligent, it could "take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate," leaving humans unable to compete.