Stephen Hawking on Everything From Nothing… What?!

In the book The Grand Design (2010), Stephen Hawking wrote a passage which has been quoted and memed many times. In it, there’s this line: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.” The following essay focuses on the word “nothing”, as well as on gravity. Indeed, gravity is given a starring role in Hawking’s own “creation story”.

(i) Introduction
(ii) Spontaneous Creation?
(iii) What Is Gravity?
(iv) Something From Nothing?
(v) Nothing Is Something
(vi) Lawrence Krauss on Nothing
(vii) Philip Goff’s Questions
(viii) David Albert’s Questions

Firstly, let me quote the full controversial passage which this essay will be discussing:

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason…