Hawking & God, #2

There was an absolutely fascinating documentary recently in which Stephen Hawking made the following two points (obviously among many other brilliant points):

1. Mathematics proves that we did not need God to create the universe, and
2. Time did not exist before God, so there was no"eternity" within which God could exist.

Well, ol' buddy ol' pal, let's take a look at that (for the record, once again, I'm a mental midget compared to Hawking, but then again, aren't we all). So, why argue with a genius? I'm not arguing. My position is that science need not (actually can't) encompass God. Attempts to explain God with science are inherently silly. I tire of the myopic scientific view that deists, theists, or all other believers are all of one ilk - narrowly defining God as being contained entirely in one of a smattering of 1,500 page books. For science to claim there is no God is as arrogant as it is for religion to claim that there is no science. So... with that said:

1. The claim that we did not "need" God to create the universe does not negate the existence of God. Hawking was clear in his use of the word "need." I don't "need" for there to exist someone by the name of Mei Li in Ghezhai in Central Eastern China. And yet someone does. Lack of need does not preclude existence.
2. There are numerous references in the Bible (and other texts) to God existing "before time." If sacred texts were written by individuals with some gifted insight into divinity (much like Hawkins has a gift for insight into science), then we have to ask about these references to time in these texts. Were they poetic references, or understandings that God transcended time? I find it interesting that they were written by individuals who lived in eras that predated current theories about space and time.