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argument in which the likelihood of the conditions for life to arise are astronomically small. He noted that there are counterarguments, such as that trillions of universes might have popped into and out of existence, one of which happened to have the right conditions for life (ours). The problem, Mazet notes, is that “there is no evidence whatsoever that this infinite number of hypothetical universes exist, and according to the cosmologists who postulate these hypothetical universes, there is no means by which to obtain any such evidence.” Therefore, Mazet concludes, “I suggest that if it is acceptable to postulate the existence of hypothetical universes, then it is acceptable to postulate the existence of God.”

That certainly sounds reasonable. After all, what is good for the cosmologist is good for the theologian. Let’s examine what leading scientists are actually saying about God and cosmology, and consider how we might address these new cosmological arguments for God’s existence.

1.

Stephen Hawking’s God. When cosmologists deal with the beginning of the universe they are only a small step removed from Aquinas’s prime mover and first cause arguments. After all, to ask such questions as: “What was there before the Big Bang?” or “Why should there be something rather than nothing?” is not so distant from “What was God doing before He created the universe?” or “What is God’s purpose for the universe?” Stephen Hawking, in his quest to understand the origin and fate of the universe, admits his work often falls in that shadowland between science and religion, physics and metaphysics, as he told an ABC 20/20 reporter:

It is difficult to discuss the beginning of the Universe without mentioning the concept of God. My work on the origin of the Universe is on the borderline between science and religion, but I try to stay on the scientific side of the border. It is quite possible that God acts in ways that cannot be described by scientific laws. But in that case one would just have to go by personal belief.

In his book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking closes with this now oft-quoted line: “If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.” This was an unfortunate choice of words because in his position as one of the world’s leading cosmologists Hawking is eminently quotable, and people have read this to mean the Judaeo-Christian God. According to his biographers Michael White and John Gribbin, although Hawking is not an atheist, he clearly does not believe in a personal God. Shortly after A Brief History of Time was released, in December 1988, the actress Shirley MacLaine asked Hawking at a luncheon if he believes that a God created the universe. In his characteristic economy of words, Hawking’s machine voice answered “No.” Similarly, in a BBC television production called Master of the Universe, Hawking waxed theological about his cosmology: “We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburbs of one of a hundred thousand million galaxies. So it is difficult to believe in a God that would care about us or even notice our existence.” Indeed, in his chapter, “The Origin and Fate of the Universe,” in A Briet History of Time, where he presents his no-boundary model of the cosmos, Hawking concluded that the universe may have no beginning or end, and thus no need for God:

The idea that space and time may form a closed surface without boundary also has profound implications for the role of God in the affairs of the universe. With the success of scientific theories in describing events, most people have come to believe that God allows the universe to evolve according to a set of laws and does not intervene in the universe to break these laws, However, the laws do not tell us what the universe should have looked like when it started—it would still be up to God to wind up the clackwork and choose how to start it off. So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the