"In his book ""<a href=""http://books.google.com/books?id=RoO9jkV-yzIC"" target=""_blank"">The Grand Design</a>,"" theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking asserts that God did not create the universe. ""Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,"" he wrote. ""It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."""