Why would the universe bother to create itself.
Hawking has found himself on the lunatic edge of the physical explanation supplanting mystical explanation.
Newton was always careful to say that just because he was proposing a predictable and measurable natural law to explain planetary motion, that God was still responsible.
Now scientific inquiry has pushed back natural causation to the very beginnings of the universe, and while it seems obvious that God created a universe that is self-sufficient and self-consistent according to natural laws (’God created a universe that doesn't “need” God’ as someone once said it), does the creation itself now not need a creator, do natural laws not need a lawgiver?
Hawkins was one of the first to admit that the laws we know of break down at the creation event - thus he is operating on no more evidence than the faithful, and has left science far behind in favor of his own personal philosophy.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.