Considering his condition is likely what allowed him to spend most of his time thinking and doing physics, thus making him one of the world's most well respected physicists and living far longer with
ALS than any other individual before him, and is still able to communicate, I would imagine Maire is correct and he is an atheist not because he is all that bitter, but because the further people tend to go in science, the less they tend to believe in religion.
«The strong evidence that abnormal TDP - 43 protein is involved in the development of
ALS, coupled with models that may replicate
ALS more faithfully
than other tools, may speed development of therapies for the thousands of
individuals diagnosed with this devastating disease.»