The right-wing evangelical smear campaign against Stephen Hawking continued on Monday as a conservative pastor named Mike Shoesmith claimed that Satan kept the beloved physicist alive.
It’s been nearly a week since Hawking passed away peacefully at his Cambridge home in the United Kingdom.
Tributes to him have poured in from around the world and his scientific brilliance and his iconic computer synthesized voice will be sorely missed.
But one group that won’t miss Hawking is the right-wing evangelicals to which Shoesmith belongs.
Ever since Hawking died, religious conservatives have been attacking him and mocking his atheism.
During a radio show, Shoesmith, a Trump supporter like many evangelicals, absurdly claimed that Satan used Hawking as a pawn to counter the late-Reverend Billy Graham, whom he seems to think was chosen specifically by God.
“The Lord sees his heart, gives him a tremendous ministry, and who do you think is sitting in the background going, ‘I have to do something about this, this guy is sold out, I have to do something’? Who do you think is sitting in the background doing that? The devil, right?
So, in 1942, that is when Billy Graham’s ministry really takes off, and who do you think was born in 1942? Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking comes from a long line of atheists—his father and all these people—so I believe the devil said, ‘OK, this guy was just born and I’m going to use this guy. This guy is already primed to accept my message that there is no God. He is already primed for it, he is going to be awash, immersed in atheism all his years as a child, I’m going to take over this guy’s life.’”
Shoesmith continued his disgusting attack by claiming that “demonic forces” kept the scientist alive so he could spread atheism.
“I believe Stephen Hawking was kept alive by demonic forces,” Shoesmith said. “I believe that it was the demonic realm that kept this man alive as a virtual vegetable his entire life just so he could spread this message that there is no God.”
Shoesmith went on to insist that he doesn’t believe all disabled people are controlled by demons, and then claimed that Hawking would have been miraculously healed had he believed in Jesus.
Seriously.
“All he had to do is just reach out to almighty God and Jesus himself would have reached down” to cast the demons out of him, Shoesmith said.
Here’s the audio via Right Wing Watch.
Stephen Hawking was a treasure of the universe he tirelessly sought to understand throughout his life. He accomplished far more than a conman like Shoesmith ever will.
While Shoesmith spends his time making up conspiracies and claims that he can’t prove, Hawking dedicated his life to proving scientific theories.
Hawking’s scientific achievements will stand the test of time. Shoesmith won’t even be a footnote.
“There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason,” Hawking once said. “Science will win because it works.”
Featured Image: Wikimedia
