Quite a few New York fans we not particularly welcoming of Mr. Tebow:

[MORE: STEINBRENNER SYNDROME, THE DISEASE OF NEW YORK CITY SPORTS FANS]

New York Times Arts writer Dave Itzkoff wondered how the Jesus Christ Superstar premiere on Broadway will be altered by these events:

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

What if God was one of us? (Getty Images)

Per Slate, only three Oscar-winning actors from the past ten years have thanked God in their acceptance speeches, while four have thanked Meryl Streep. All this and more in an obscenely detailed infographic tallying who has thanked whom, and in what position (first and last are most valuable, it would seem.) The biggest thing this made us remember was quite how LONG Halle Berry's speech was.

As for the people praying for his survival and begging against his death, Hitchens concedes just this much to the AP: "I think it's a nice gesture."

''I'm perfectly sure that there is nothing to be gained from it in point of my health, but perhaps I shouldn't even say that. If it would do something for my morale possibly it would do something for my health. We all know that morale is an element in recovery,'' he said. ''But incantations, I don't think, have any effect on the material world.''

Hitch gets even icier in the first installment of his Vanity Fair series, Topic of Cancer, asking his readers to "Please do not trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries." This sentiment, however, is rejoined by something of a caveat: "Unless, of course, it makes you feel better." 

So go ahead and pray for Hitch! Especially if your lifestyle bears any resemblance to his "bohemian existence," and you want to delude yourself into thinking that your excessive smoking and drinking won't lead to, well, cancer. Just keep on praying.  

The Grand Design has, in one day, gone from a science book only of interest because of Hawking's far-reaching name recognition to the hottest book on Amazon. It's currently ranked number one in sales among every book on the site, sitting above the three Steig Larsson books, Freedom, and all the other heavy hitters. To put its meteoric rise in perspective, let's compare these recent sales of Hawking's book to those of Mockingjay, the publishing phenomenon that has now been demoted to the number two spot on the Amazon bestseller list. Suzanne Collins' young adult novel has been in the top 100 for 220 days. The Grand Design, on the other hand, has been in the top 100 for two days. Mockingjay has 393 customer reviews. The Grand Design has 8.

The excerpts from the book prompted a response from religious figures from all parts of the world as they attempted to discount Hawking's logic and reaffirm God's importance. Jonathan Sacks, British Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation, slammed Hawking's argument in an essay that ran beside it in The Times of London (though the article is still locked behind Rupert Murdoch's paywall). Dr. Rowan Williams — the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of England — said "physics on its own will not settle the question of why there is something rather than nothing," CNN International reported. As these attacks made the rounds, others spoke to The Times about how their faith could not take claims such as Hawking's seriously.

With hubbub not yet dying down, the number of copies of The Grand Design shipped will probably surge up until its Sept. 7 release date and after. If you only read one book this year in which physics explains the meaning of life, read this one!

In previous works, such as A Brief History of Time, Hawking played coy on the subject. He's noted his personal thoughts regarding God's lack of existence, but instead of treating his beliefs as hard facts, he simply said creation theories did not need to name God as an agent. But these new opinions mark the first time Hawking has deemed a God-less conception of the universe the correct one.

Where did he get this idea from! There's some new evidence, the book states, that calls the idea that God made the galaxy in his image a bit presumptuous. The 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our sun, for instance, indicates that our setup isn't that special. Hawking said this other example of celestial orbit "makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions — the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings."

Most who subscribe to a monotheistic religion will probably find themselves in stark disagreement with Hawking. Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation and a believer in God, is already on the warpath. In a piece that's in today's Times of London, Sacks calls Hawking's claim a "misinterpretation" and works the old approach of arguing for the separation of science and religion. 

Most of the Sacks essay, however, is stuck behind Rupert Murdoch's paywall.

As of 10:30 a.m., no one had taken them up on the offer.