METAPHYSICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY IN HAWKING,STEPHEN THEORY OF THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

In 1981 S. W. Hawking and J. Hartle presented a quantum mechanical des cription of the early stages of possible cosmological evolution. Their proposal was interpreted by many authors as a pattern of cosmic creat ion from nothing in which no divine Creator is needed. In this approac h, physically defined ''nothing'' was identified both with the empty s et of set theory and with metaphysical nothingness. After defining phi losophical presuppositions implicitly assumed in Hawking's paper, one discovers that this alleged nothingness has all properties of the phil osophically conceived Logos accepted by Hellenic philosophers of the N eoplatonic tradition. Consequently, Hawking's theory of creation remai ns consistent with Christian theism, and its only theological opponent s can be found among defenders of Samuel Clark's God of scientific gap s.