Apart from Christ we are all idiots and lacking understanding. Some atheists will not even genuinely look into Christianity because of their arrogance, pride and bias. Actually some of them have no need for an external God because they already have one - themselves.
BTW Hawking isn't exactly an atheist since he uses the term "mind of God" near the end of his book, A Brief History of Time. When asked about it, Hawking simply said "I do not believe in a personal God."
Einstein wasn't exactly an atheist although he wasn't exactly a Christian either. "My comprehension of God comes from the deeply felt conviction of a superior intelligence that reveals itself in the knowable world. In common terms, one can describe it as 'pantheistic' (Spinoza)."
This issue is deeply complex and "atheists" with varying disbeliefs about organized religions are generally kind of lumped together as a group. Some just don't accept the traditional religions. Others not even accept the concept of a God. In the end, these distinctions make little difference.
Here in San Francisco, there are a lot of liberals who plaster the rear of their cars with dozens of bumper stickers. One such car had multiple atheistic stickers, including one that screamed, "RELIGION IS BUNK - Edison."
The implication was that Edison was an atheist, but in fact, a review of his personal diary revealed that the quote "Religion is bunk" was made in the context that he dismissed ideas that devotees of one religion could lay claim that their conception and worship of the Almighty was definitely the only true way.
Or some of us were Christian and finally saw the light. I have no need to make myself god, because I have no need for a god, period. I know it's hard to understand, but people can live happy, productive, moral lives without having even the concept of a god in their lives.
BTW, notice I didn't limit the comment to atheists. I know many famously intelligent and wise non-Christians throughout Western history weren't atheists, but deists, agnostics, or other varying shades of non-belief in the Christian god. But according to Christian doctrine, all are going to hell and according to posters here, all were idiots.