“There is no heaven or afterlife; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,” said Stephen Hawking, an eminent British cosmologist and the author of a 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time, in an interview with Guardian, a British daily newspaper, Sunday.

Comparing the human brain to “a computer which will stop working when its components fail,” Hawking said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.

Hawking's latest comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book, The Grand Design, in which he asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe. As did the book, Hawking’s recent interview is likely to provoke another backlash from the religious community.

Hawking, who was diagnosed with an incurable motor neuron disease when he was 21, also provided an answer to how we should live in the interview. Saying “we should seek the greatest value of our action,” he emphasized the need to fulfill our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives.

When asked about his thoughts on death after his health scare in 2009 following a lecture tour in the U.S., the 69-year-old physicist answered that he was not afraid. “I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”