Back to the original point of this thread: there is a new review of Hawking's book here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2269908
which delves into the argument about the origin of our Universe, or universes as Hawking would have it. Scientifically, if (1) there were evidence for these other universes, and (2) evidence that they are created and destroyed and (3) that they actually have different laws of physics then I would be happier thinking of this as within the realm of science. But even then, even if we have evidence that universe creation and destruction has been going on for a long time (indefinitely? that would be hard) once you go to the non-existence of God or gods, I still think you are going beyond science.