Dr Stephen Hawking... one of the greatest minds of our time, or an over educated, know it all god killer?

I was watching Dr Stephen Hawking's "Into the Universe" on the Discovery Channel again, and was struck by how brilliant he is, and how the discoveries of cosmology and science over the past 400 years have illuminated the structure of the universe.

I have heard others on SH disparage his intellect and his understanding of the universe. Since his understanding is based on the discoveries of Dr Einstein, James Maxwell and all those whose discoveries he followed (standing on the shoulders of giants as Dr Hawking puts it) they seem to be discounting the very basics of the science that makes the modern world possible.

I can understand people without a background in physics and mathematics not fully understanding the concepts Dr Hawking puts forward, but that is not an excuse to discount them. Dr Hawking does such an outstanding job of making the principals accessible without the need to understand the mathematics the underlie them, there is really no excuse to say that they are unintelligible. It is really just a matter of laziness and suborn adherence to ancient myths.

If there are real reasons and explanations for this "alternative view", I'd really like to hear it.