It's pretty amazing that Hawking has managed to fool so many universities, publishers, governments and even Christian organizations. I don't know how such a fraud could be taken seriously without some very large conspiracy at work. So many people would have to be in on it.
Not really, just a few Gate Keeper's @ the Top would do the trick. Throw some Tensor Calculus around and pretend it's "Science".
Then have generations Indoctrinated with
Propaganda...
"And I use that trust to effectively
brainwash them. We who teach introductory physics have to acknowledge, if we are honest with ourselves, that our teaching methods are primarily those of
propaganda. We appeal—without demonstration—to evidence that supports our position. We only introduce arguments or evidence that support the currently accepted theories, and omit or gloss over any evidence to the contrary. We give short shrift to alternative theories, introducing them only in order to promptly demolish them—again by appealing to undemonstrated counter-evidence. We drop the names of famous scientists and Nobel prizewinners to show that we are solidly on the side of the scientific establishment. All of this is designed to demonstrate the inevitability of the ideas we currently hold,
so that if students reject what we say, they are declaring themselves to be unreasoning and illogical, unworthy of being considered as modern, thinking people.
Of course, we do all this with the best of intentions and complete sincerity. I have good reasons for
employing propaganda techniques to achieve belief." ....
"So I, like all my colleagues, teach the way I do because I have little choice. But it is
brainwashing nonetheless. When the dust settles, what I am asking my students to do is to accept what I say because I, as an accredited representative of my discipline, profession, and academia, say it. All the reason, logic, and evidence that I use simply disguise the fact that the students are not yet in a position to sift and weigh the evidence and arrive at their own conclusions."
Singham, Mano: "Teaching and Propaganda," Physics Today (vol. 53, June 2000), p. 54
https://donpartridge.wordpress.com/natural-health-resources-info-links/professor-admits-profs-brainwash-students-w-propaganda/
Voila!! Welcome to Shanri-La
I was not able to see the whole article.
You really don't need to, just look @ the Scientific Method...
Step 1: Observe a Phenomenon
Step 2: Lit Review
Step 3: Hypothesis
Step 4: TEST/EXPERIMENT
Step 5: Analyze Data
Step 6: Valid/Invalid Hypothesis
Step 7: Report Results
And understand how you form a Scientific Hypothesis, then
Kablooie!!
I have often wondered how to reconcile "something from nothing" with what you call 1LOT
It's
irreconcilable, it's tantamount to reconciling Married Bachelors.
Then Quantum Mechanics takes it to the Woodshed and Bludgeons it Senseless!
My current conceptual limits keep me from rejecting the "theories" of so-called experts
That's Blind Faith.
...who might be con artists hiding behind a fancy-looking wall of mathematical gibberish.
You got it
But I can't similarly dismiss the fields of geology, paleontology and evolutionary biology.
SEE: Apply the Scientific Method as above with these, and....
Kablooie!!
Just as you can't get your head around spontaneous abiogenesis
Oh, I got my head around it alright love. Rest Assured.
I can't get mine around a trickster God
Huh? How so...?
and a global conspiracy to make the Earth appear to be much older than the bible indicates.
That's just Ignorance. Try and put any of those 'Dating Methods' in The Scientific Method

...You'd have better luck putting the Space Shuttle into a Thimble.
regards