In the closing sentence of his most famous work, A Brief History of Time, Professor Stephen Hawking expressed a desire to know “the Mind of God”. He later said he regretted saying it, as it gave the impression that he believed in such a being. Nevertheless the “God hypothesis” never quite seems to leave modern cosmologists alone. Hawking liked to engage with those who took a different view of it. He was delighted to have been appointed a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences – though his involvement appealed to his sense of mischief as much as his scientific interest.