The mind of God
Published
25 October 2026
“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.”
Why it stays with me
These are the closing words of A Brief History of Time. “That” refers to the question of why we and the universe exist at all.
Hawking was not religious, and he used “the mind of God” as a metaphor for understanding the deepest laws of nature completely. The line is often quoted as if it meant something else, which is a good reason to read it in context.
What I like is the ambition. It treats the biggest question there is as something human reason might one day answer, and that is a hopeful way to see science.
Ayoub Khallok keeps this archive of essays, research, lessons and notes, written to understand things more clearly. More about Ayoub.
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