Dear Mr. Hawking:

I just read that you don't believe in heaven. That you think it is a "fairy story" for people who are afraid of the dark.

To you, the human brain is merely a computer, and when it stops working, it gets thrown into the dump with all of the other broken-down junk.

That's it. That's where it all ends.

I feel sorry for you. For all your brilliance, there is so much you're missing.

Maybe you're content with your life. I find it hard to believe, however, that anyone can ever be truly happy without God. Can you really be happy believing that everything ends when you die? That your intelligence and relationships and loves and joys are snuffed out like a candle, as if they never existed at all? What, then, would be the purpose of ever living at all?

I take a different view of heaven than you do. I know it exists. I know God exists, that He is our Father and He loves us. And because He loves us, He has made it possible for our intelligence and relationships and loves and joys to stretch on into eternity. That is a belief I hold to, not because I'm afraid of the dark, but because I have faith in the Light.

There is no reason why science and religion should be such mortal enemies. They only are because we humans have made them so. I believe God has an understanding of what we call science that is far superior to our own, and that is how He created this earth and how He performed miracles in ancient days as well as today. A miracle is no less a miracle just because it has a scientific explanation behind it. Try telling a new mother holding her baby for the first time that her child is not a miracle because we know exactly how the sex cells combined and divided and did their thing to make the baby. She will laugh at you. Or worse.

You can't tell me that science just is. God is in everything. He performs daily miracles, some which we understand, and many we don't.

Don't you think, Mr. Hawking, that the fact that your life has been extended so long for someone with your illness is a miracle, too? Maybe to you it's just science, but look at all the contributions you've made to your profession. I see that as a Higher Power having a hand in your life. You haven't seen it because you refuse to believe, but He is certainly there, sustaining your every breath.

There is so much you're missing.

I feel sorry for you.

Sincerely,
The Brown-Eyed Girl