The height of arrogance is the belief in self creation.
Hawking is a scientist first and foremost. He only lives by facts and figures. The presence of God is something I hope and sometimes pray for but all I have to go on is faith I have been brought up with, the faith my family has and what I’ve read in scriptures. We have had unexplained miracles, stigmata, the virgin mary visitations, padre pio, terminal illnesses going into remission, images, shrouds etc and one thing for sure is that the wisdom shown in the bible is unparallelled. Things make so much sense and come true in the end that is scary but is relative to the human experience, scribed by humans. But you have to read it to understand that. It is for man. So if you live as a man you will understand. It is slanted against women so far as equality, but look how jesus showed mercy to prostitutes and how his mother was the most holy of humanity ever created. The inequality factor was more of a sing of the times when mankind was fairly primitive relatively speaking again ala 2,000 years ago. We have all this and more. But as it says in the bible blessed are those who do not see but believe ala the doubting Thomas parable. I don’t know. I want to believe. In my heart I believe but I have much doubt and angst every minute about God, probably because I more or less stopped practicing my faith and got away from people who were doing so. I know when I had strong faith I was never happier and always felt someone was there for me, someone I could fall back on in my mind and soul I guess. For people that have no belief in anything but the science we know and the science we don’t yet know, like hawking, I am sure there is some kind of void that can never be filled. I’d like to think humans did not evolve from aminals which in turned evolved from amoebas but two things about life are constant. The only thing definitive about it is birth and death, excluding miscarriages and abortions, and the birth of plants and other living things through nature processes. Pass the joint and whisky.