Why Hawking’s Book Needs a Better Title

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Stephen Hawking's book: The Grand Design


In a previous blog post, I have posed the question "Has Stephen Hawking Killed God?" and have answered it with an emphatic “No!”. In this follow up post, I discuss the appropriateness of Hawking’s choice of title and subtitle for his book.

I would like to suggest to Hawking that he change the title of his book “The Grand Design”  because it betrays the book’s grand claim- the irrelevance of God in creation.  If he really wanted to take God out of the creation picture, he should not have associated the word “design” with his book, because this word implies “purpose” and “intelligence”.  And an idea as big and complex as creation would call for a Great Purpose and a Great Intelligence, thus reminding many of a Great Being.  He should have, instead, called his book “The Grand Chance” or “The Grand Coincidence” because he suggests that human life is a product of mere chance.

I also suggest that he change the subtitle of his book because it betrays the book’s methodology- science .  The phrase “New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life” does not remind me of science.  It rather reminds me of another branch of knowledge that a number of scientists (I would not say “all”, nor “most”) reject as unfounded. I refer to philosophy, the discipline that studies the ultimate causes of things.  In effect, by the title and subtitle of the book, Hawking has successfully evoked the idea of a Supreme Being and presented a methodology other than science.  If Hawking really wanted to take God out of the creation picture through science, he could have begun by choosing a better title for his book.

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