When I ask him how God fits into his understanding of the universe, Prof Cox says: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t at all. I honestly don\u2019t think about religion until someone asks me about it.\u201d\u009d And that\u2019s because, he explains, science is not about asking grand questions but very simple ones. The way to find out answers to big questions is \u201calmost accidentally\u201d\u009d.<\/p>\n
Using physics that is beyond me, Prof Cox explains how his fridge shows that there is no afterlife (thermodynamics, apparently). But then he qualifies himself. \u201cPhilosophers would rightly point out that physicists making bland and sweeping statements is naive. There is naivety in just saying there\u2019s no God; it\u2019s b——s,\u201d\u009d he says. \u201cPeople have thought about this. People like Leibniz and Kant. They\u2019re not idiots. So you\u2019ve got to at least address that.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
He suspects that another civilisation exists in the observable universe, given that it contains 350 billion galaxies. But they would be so far away that we\u2019d never make contact. \u201c<\/p>\n