So how can anyone expect someone that doesn’t believe, to ever believe? Ans: God draws them to Himself.
Can people just decide to believe, or does it come from God? Ans: It all comes from God, even when it appears to be entirely one’s own decision.
If it comes from God, why doesn’t everyone believe the same? Ans: In a word, because of Sin. God’s will for us is to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, but this does not happen instantaneously. Conversion is a decision followed by a process. Think of your life as a bucket of dirty water: if you continuously add clear ice to it, the dirt will be diluted more and more, unless you put more dirt in. Eventually what you will have is pure water.
Doesn’t God know all this before He even creates us? He must know if a person will be a Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, etc, right?
Hawking is an astrophysicist, therefore, he is qualified on all spiritual matters.
Likewise, the Dali Lama, therefore, is qualified to be an astrophysicist.