Hawking's 'There's No God' Remark in Posthumous Book Sends Twitter Into Frenzy

"There is no God. No one directs the universe," Stephen Hawking states in "Brief Answers to the Big Questions," presented to a large audience in London on Monday.

"For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God," he adds in the book, which he had been writing before he died in March. "I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature," he adds, moving on to speculate about the possibilities of would-be time travel.

"Travel back in time can't be ruled out according to our present understanding," he says. He also enthusiastically assumes that "within the next hundred years we will be able to travel to anywhere in the Solar System."

Despite ruling out the presence of God as such, he surprisingly asserts that there are “forms of intelligent life out there,” saying there is definitely a need for being “wary of answering back until we have developed a bit further.”

"He realized that people specifically wanted his answers to these questions," the scientist's daughter, Lucy Hawking, who partook in writing the book, told CNN.

Hawking’s message on God and “intelligent being”, however, didn’t appear to strike the right chord with some:

“Where science fails, spiritualism takes over,” on Twitter user remarked.

Many pointed out that those in power, be it in religion, government or business, wouldn’t want their subordinates “to think,” because the latter’s cognitive abilities would mean they couldn’t be deceived:

Some obviously took Hawking’s reportedly posthumous message with a grain of salt:

“Does anyone wonder if a computer generated voice really relayed his last words? Or did they just make it say whatever they wanted it to say?” one asked.

One user took Hawking’s challenges throughout his life as preconditions to “understand the bounties of God,” and he went on to say  the renowned scientist was “the most unfortunate” on Earth as he failed to grasp that the heights he reached despite so many physical handicaps “lead to God:”

However, this immediately triggered a response from another user, who pointed to the fact that it would be wrong to “give God the credit:”

Hawking’s words on God have prompted many to engage in long exchanges, with many contemplating on common understandings of chaos and the cosmos:

Many however ruled out any single objective point of view:

Many categorically referred to Hawking’s words as scientifically unproven, claiming this is no more than a supposition, an individual point of view.

One even opted for black humor, referring to the timing and the real sequence of events:

A different user, meanwhile, attempted to come up with the physical formula to explain the start of the world:

Stephen Hawking, appreciated all around the world as one of the most brilliant scientists of our time, died in March at the age of 76. For most of his adult life, he suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disorder also commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.