THERE is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.

According to BBC today, Hawking had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science, but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.

The Grand Design, part serialised in The Times, says there was no need for a god to set the Universe going.

He concludes:

Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something.

In his new book, an extract of which appears in The Times, Britain’s most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos.

Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said:

That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.

He adds:

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Sunday Mail reported that primary school students are being taught that man and dinosaurs walked the Earth together – and that there’s fossil evidence to prove it.

Not only did dinosaurs and humans coexist, Jesus actually tamed the critters, if this bizarre tattoo is to be believed. (Click on pic for more wacky Jesus tats.)

Fundamentalist Christians, according to recent studies, are hijacking religious instruction classes despite education experts saying Creationism and attempts to convert children to Christianity have no place in state schools.

Students have been told Noah collected dinosaur eggs to bring on the Ark, and Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs because they were under a protective spell.

Critics are calling for the RI program to be scrapped after claims emerged Christian lay people are feeding children misinformation. Many of the instructors are from Pentecostal churches.

Education Queensland is aware that Creationism is being taught by some religious instructors, but said parents could opt out. Australian Secular Lobby president Hugh Wilson pinted out, however, that children were ostracised and discriminated against if they were pulled out of the class.

Set Free Christian Church’s Tim McKenzie said when students questioned him why dinosaur fossils carbon dated as earlier than man, he replied that the great flood must have skewed the data.

Queensland Teachers Union President Steve Ryan said teachers were sometimes compelled to supervise the instructors “because of all the fire and brimstone stuff”.

New research shows three in 10 Australians believe dinosaurs and man did exist at the same time. The survey, by the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, shows a “worrying” lack of basic scientific principles.

Said FASTS president Dr Cathy Foley:

The results underscore the need for students to be exposed to science and mathematics through a well resourced education system, rather than learning about science through Jurassic Park.

PhD researcher Cathy Byrne found in a NSW-based survey that scripture teachers tended to discourage questioning, emphasised submission to authority and excluded different beliefs. She said 70 percent of scripture teachers thought children should be taught the Bible as historical fact.

A parent of a Year 5 student on the Sunshine Coast said his daughter was ostracised to the library after arguing with her scripture teacher about DNA.

The scripture teacher told the class that all people were descended from Adam and Eve. My daughter rightly pointed out, as I had been teaching her about DNA and science, that ‘wouldn’t they all be inbred’?

The teacher replied that DNA wasn’t invented then.

After the parent complained, the girl spent the rest of the year’s classes in the library.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn (Hawkin) and Brian Jordan (Creationists)