British physicist Stephen Hawking has said the creation of the universe was a result of the inevitable laws of physics and it did not need God's help.
In his latest book titled "The Grand Design", Hawking writes: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."
He rejects Isaac Newton's theory that the universe did not spontaneously begin to form but was set in motion by God.
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going," the Daily Telegraph quoted Hawking as writing in his book.
Earlier, in Hawking's most famous work "A Brief History of Time", he did not dismiss the possibility that God had a hand in the creation of the world.
"If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we should know the mind of God," he had written in the 1988 book.
The book, co-written by American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, will be released September 9.