It appears that Professor Hawking has recently declared that the universe can exist without the need of God. A discussion of this on the Aristasia Forums has raised several interesting points, including this one commenting on the fact that the great mathematician Laplace said much the same thing about God being an "unnecessary hypothesis" some two centuries ago. An interesting point about this is that when Laplace made his famous statement, he thought that "science" was almost ready to understand the universe in its entirety. A few loose ends needed tying up, but in its essentials, the whole thing was understood. Such problems as how to reconcile quantum physics with Newtonian physics were not problems at all, because no one would even hear of quantum physics for another hundred years. The Secret of the Universe (he believed) had been unlocked on a purely Newtonian model (which, for the most part, is what ordinary Tellurians still mean today when they speak of science). Now physicists say that they are only a few steps away from a GUT or a TOE (a Grand Unified Theory, or a Theory of Everything - that is what they call them!) - just as Laplace did two centuries ago. Assuming that the west-Tellurian purely-material science model lasts that long, I wonder what they will think two centuries from now. Perhaps they will again be on the verge of the Final Breakthrough, having long ago realized that Hawking was as far from the full truth as Laplace. The link below leads to the full discussion.