I refer to the article Stephen Hawking Says God Did Not Create The Universe (September 3).

He said: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist”. This is a very confusing and contradictory statement made by Mr Hawking.

First I ask, how, if there was nothing, can the law of gravity exist? Logically, if there was nothing, the law of gravity itself was not there either. So the universe could not have created itself from nothing. The law of gravity can only exist when there is a pull, and this pull can only come about when there is mass or energy, otherwise it cannot exist or show itself.

Anything spontaneous which may come about has to have the prime factors, otherwise this cannot manifest itself and remains in void and so in oblivion. We all know that matter cannot be created nor destroyed; the most fundamental law of physics. It can only be altered from one phase to another, say mass can be changed to energy and vice versa, but never destroyed or obliterated. So here we have to ask the crucial question: What being or who made us realise the reality of mass or energy which we feel and experience every day? Here one has to keep in mind the limitations of homo sapiens.

To give a simple example of spontaneity one can compare it to an ignition of a substance occurring suddenly, but this spontaneity has to have some basic materials, so the universe could not have created itself from nothing as maintained.

As to the Big Bang, this is not a theory; that is something that can be proved, but a hypothesis which is a supposition made as basis for reasoning, without reference to its truth, or as starting point for investigation. A groundless assumption.

I am sorry to say that Mr Hawking is contradicting himself for in his book of 1988 A Brief History Of Time he made this statement: “If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God”.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.” Let us put things straight: In this statement Mr Hawking was careful not to say that God does not exist but that God did not create the universe. The statement says that God had no part in creation, hence under disguise suggesting that God, or a super being, never existed.

From the scientific point of view, man is progressing in his scientific knowledge. Yet as being part of this matter or energy himself, he shall never reach the absolute or ultimate point of knowledge. Otherwise he would be a super being himself.

Man in his limitations should not play God as some few scientists want to do. Please give me proof not speculation.

Yet Mr Hawking made two good comments that humans are draining the earth of resources and face a terrifying array of new threats, and also warned in a recent television series that mankind should avoid contact with aliens at all costs, as the consequences could be devastating.