Perhaps he is some sort of “Hyper” or super-agnostic, believing that God is more than just uninvolved in the day to day affairs of people, but also uninvolved in anything, a by-stander watching the “big-bang” just happen, like we might stand in awe watching a fireworks spectacle.
No, you either believe in fate, or that every single atom is moved in a pre-determined manner by the hand of a greater being, or you believe in chance, or that things happen randomly, but within a narrow framework of laws (aka: physics).
Quantum Mechanics has proven the latter to be the truth.
Chance also does not rule out the possibility of a Creator, it just means the Creator may have created the opportunity and the physical laws to govern the opportunity of a universe springing into existence on it's own.
Hawking, Guth, etcetera are not thinking about just the beginning of this universe. They are thinking about what came before, and what else there may be besides this universe. Maybe God created the big picture, and the picture is merely larger than presumed.