Mr. Hawking wins easy battles against uneducated (in science) religious persons, but
taking his statement on perspective, He is based on
assumptions with serious underlying problems, basically everything from mathematics, to the incompatibility of quantum mechanics and relativity, and the lack of proof and evidence for string theories, he is launching a very
aggressive statement, probably his last effort on life to counter the anthropomorphic ideas of God, and this is very common in all scientists.