Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

[Secular Elf]

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.

Early on his career he was a great physicist, later in his career he was a great physics popularizer. After making great contributions, he made physics accessible to non-physysicists and that was at least as important as his personal contributions to the field. Science is too important to let a failure to communicate it to the masses leaving it mis-understood. This is what will be missed most with his passing. While others will take up the mantle, Tyson comes to mind, none currently have his unique combination of insight and communication skills.

Indeed. I am sad to hear the news, he was one of the greats, in my mind right up there with Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. He will be missed among those who really care about science.

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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.

It won't be long before theists start arguing Hawking was a believer. They pulled that shit after the death of Einstein and the worst example was Anthony Flew.

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

Said the one who still buys into an old book of mythology.

Your bible IS NOT, nor ever was a science textbook. You are the one being willfully ignorant. 

That was then, this is now. You claiming we are arguing from ignorance is laughable.

I despise willful ignorance.

[Joods]

A great mathematical physicist; if anyone deserved a Nobel Prize, he did:

https://news.sky.com/story/scientist-ste...6-11289119

The scientific community has suffered a great loss today.

[Rhondazvous]

The man who put the universe in a nutshell. R.I.P.

[Secular Elf]

Besides his mind, the one thing I admire the most about Professor Hawking is his ability to fight through his disability and not allow it to prevent him from accomplishing his work or making a great career.  I am disabled through an accident and he had it ten times worse than me.  I can still walk around with the aid of a walker.  He made scientific theorems and helped us understand the Universe better, and still taught.  If he could do all that being in a wheel chair and not being able to move on his own or speak, just think of what I can achieve, or any of the rest of us for that matter.

“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit, as well as physically,” he told the New York Times in 2011. Hawking was frequently frank about his battle with ALS, a degenerative neurological disease that often proves fatal. But he defied doctors expectations, living for over half a century after he was diagnosed in 1963, at the age of 21. The year before, he said in an introduction to the 2010 TV documentary series Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: “Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free.”

--http://time.com/5198842/stephen-hawking-quotes-universe-life/

He is indeed a great inspiration

[LadyForCamus]

Oh, so you’re an atheist now?  That was easy!  😉

Why would you say that?

I think you know why.

[Jehanne]

Point about Tony Flew; he died a materialist, no belief or profession of an afterlife. But, even after embracing deism, he retracted some of his reasons for having done so in the first place. The Wikipedia article on him has more.

[Minimalist]

A great mathematical physicist; if anyone deserved a Nobel Prize, he did:

https://news.sky.com/story/scientist-ste...6-11289119

The scientific community has suffered a great loss today.

Billy Graham died less than a month ago and it was no loss at all.

[Brian37]

The man who put the universe in a nutshell. R.I.P.

I like how Penny, the Character in "The Big Bang Theory" in one episode described him when Sheldon mentioned his name.

Penny, "I know, he's the guy who invented time".

[AFTT47]

Besides his mind, the one thing I admire the most about Professor Hawking is his ability to fight through his disability and not allow it to prevent him from accomplishing his work or making a great career.  I am disabled through an accident and he had it ten times worse than me.  I can still walk around with the aid of a walker.  He made scientific theorems and helped us understand the Universe better, and still taught.  If he could do all that being in a wheel chair and not being able to move on his own or speak, just think of what I can achieve, or any of the rest of us for that matter.

“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit, as well as physically,” he told the New York Times in 2011. Hawking was frequently frank about his battle with ALS, a degenerative neurological disease that often proves fatal. But he defied doctors expectations, living for over half a century after he was diagnosed in 1963, at the age of 21. The year before, he said in an introduction to the 2010 TV documentary series Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: “Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free.”

--http://time.com/5198842/stephen-hawking-quotes-universe-life/

He is indeed a great inspiration

Yeah, I've always admired him as much for that as his genius. I honestly think if I had been in the same situation, I would have sought out someone's help to euthanize me. He managed to do great work over a span of fifty years in a barely-functional body.

[vorlon13]

We didn't get an owners manual with this universe, Hawking really helped out !!