Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

[Edwardo Piet]

Massive loss to the scientific community.

Massive loss to the world

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Massive loss to the scientific community.

Perhaps.

But I've also heard It said, include by notable Nobel prize winning physicists, that Hawking's actual contribution to advancing the state of physics nowhere near justify his outsized fame as physicist amongst general public, and he would be remembered more as a personality than as a physicist.

Hmmm. Truth or jealousy?

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Because there exists not a shred of evidence to the contrary.

That sounds like a textbook example of the argument from ignorance.

You don't actually understand the argument from ignorance do you?

"Not a shred of evidence... therefore improbable" is not the argument from ignorance. That is being reasonable.

"Not a shred of evidence... therefore impossible" is the argument from ignorance.

No one said it was impossible or that absence of evidence was evidence of absence, we're just saying that making up some magical shit out of thin air and expecting it to still be probable without any evidence is about as irrational as it gets.

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If he had been a theist, his surviving ALS for almost 50 years would be considered a sign of divine favor by many.

Because theism and stupidity correlate.

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That sounds like a textbook example of the argument from ignorance.

That which can be asserted without evidence, can be rationally dismissed without evidence.

Yeah... and that's not the argument from ignorance. I can only conclude that RR doesn't actually understand the argument from ignorance so he just goes by his own shitty misreading of it and shouts it randomly at non-silly people whenever they say something clever.