There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win, because it works.
in an ABC interview with Diane Sawyer, June 7, 2010
What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science … That doesn’t prove there is no God only that God is not necessary
Der Spiegel, October 17, 1988
So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?
A Brief History of Time, p. 141
A black hole is where God is dividing by zero.
(Attributed to), as quoted in Huberman, The Quotable Atheist, p. 142
So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end; it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?
as quoted in Huberman, The Quotable Atheist, p. 143
In 1915, Einstein introduced his revolutionary General Theory of Relativity. In this, space and time were no longer absolute, no longer a fixed background to events. Instead, they were dynamical quantities that were shaped by the matter and energy in the universe. They were defined only within the universe, so it makes no sense to talk of a time before the universe began. It would be like asking for a point south of the South Pole: it is not defined.
“The Origin of the Universe,” Scientific Insights into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Acta 20, 2009