Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

[Secular Elf]

Perhaps.

But I've also heard It said, include by notable Nobel prize winning physicists, that Hawking's actual contribution to advancing the state of physics nowhere near justify his outsized fame as physicist amongst general public, and he would be remembered more as a personality than as a physicist.

Early on his career he was a great physicist, later in his career he was a great physics popularizer. After making great contributions, he made physics accessible to non-physysicists and that was at least as important as his personal contributions to the field. Science is too important to let a failure to communicate it to the masses leaving it mis-understood. This is what will be missed most with his passing. While others will take up the mantle, Tyson comes to mind, none currently have his unique combination of insight and communication skills.

Indeed. I am sad to hear the news, he was one of the greats, in my mind right up there with Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. He will be missed among those who really care about science.

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If he had been a theist, his surviving ALS for almost 50 years would be considered a sign of divine favor by many.

It won't be long before theists start arguing Hawking was a believer. They pulled that shit after the death of Einstein and the worst example was Anthony Flew.

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That sounds like a textbook example of the argument from ignorance.

Said the one who still buys into an old book of mythology.

Your bible IS NOT, nor ever was a science textbook. You are the one being willfully ignorant. 

That was then, this is now. You claiming we are arguing from ignorance is laughable.

I despise willful ignorance.