Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

[Jehanne]

Most philosophers are atheist:

http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=13371

Are they making a claim about something? Or just giving their opinion? If the first, then the questions is why. If the second, then the question is why is this relevant.

You seemed to imply that because Professor Hawking was not a "good philosopher", that his research in cosmology was not relevant to the atheist viewpoint.

In short, Hawking said that his research led him to conclude that it was not necessary to believe that a god (or gods) created the Universe any more than it was necessary to believe that planets and stars move because there are angels (or other invisible beings) who are pushing them.