Hawking’s new book says God did not create the universe

THE universe was not created by God, scientist Stephen Hawking has said in his new book.

In The Grand Design, extracts of which were printed in The Times, Professor Hawking concludes: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself 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.”

The book, published next week, sets out to contest Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have created out of chaos.