Abiogenesis ("Chemical Evolution"): Did Life come from Non-Life by Pure Chance.

[The Architect Of Fate]

Who said this? "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing."

Ah, so now you are the one seemingly quote-mining?

So, since you'd rather slide away from my comments, let's start at the top with this one.

Firstly. A colloquial term thrown out into a crowd is in no way a 'Scholarly' work.
Secondly, if you want to try and find an actual quote from within the field of physics or cosmology, that'd be both nice and actually on point.

Finally, when Lawrence Crouse talks to 'The average Joe' (Or Neil Degrass Tyson or any other scholar for that matter), they simply have to render the proper terms down into common vernacular such that the people whose professions are outside of the actual field of study can have a ghost of a chance at understanding the basics. A book written for popular consumption is not actually a 'Scholarly' thesis. However, it can contain information relating to such.

Indeed when scientists say nothing they are not referring to the colloquial definition of nothing it's just an easy shortcut in language to explain it to lay people. Hawkings sure as heck wasn't saying a universe just popped out of nowhere. Also, we need to point out this isn't an atheist position as there is no atheist position on where the universe came from and frankly if it's even possible to know where it came from.