First off, he never said it.
He did indicate that GOD should not be used as an 'answer' when trying to solve science problems. That just makes sense.
Second.... this is about the third or fourth article making the same invalid claim.
“Hawking DENIES there is a GOD ?????”
Well, if this isn’t a denial, I don’t know what is:
“Some would claim the answer to these questions is that there is a God who chose to create the universe that way. It is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. In this view it is accepted that some entity exists that needs no creator, and that entity is called God. This is known as the first-cause argument for the existence of God. We claim, however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.”
Dr. Hawking also stated:
“As recent advances in cosmology suggest, the laws of gravity and quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing,” Hawking and Mlodinow explain.”
You see, UCANSEE2, Dr. Hawking clearly states his belief concerning the question of, “Does God exist?”