Lemaître’s expanding universe wasn’t based on religious belief, rather it was a possible solution to Einstein’s field equation, with the cosmological constant removed, that fit Hubble’s observations.
I don’t suggest that Lemaître’s expanding universe theory was religiously inspired, only that religion and science haven’t always been at odds the way they are.
Hawking may be a brilliant man but unfortunately he’s slid into attacking religion rather than promoting and developing his theories.
Lemaître had to stop the Pope from trying to shoehorn ‘the Big Bang’ into ‘In The Beginning ‘. He kept his religious beliefs separate from science.
Isaiah 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; ... I’m pretty sure that Isaiah lived a few hundred years before Einstein or Hubbel.