https://www.cnet.com/news/there-is-no-god-stephen-hawking-writes-in-final-book/

Hawking goes on to say that this realization made him decide belief in an afterlife was just "wishful thinking" and that "when we die, we return to dust."

But Hawking, who died in March at age 76, also saw a silver lining in what to some could be a bleak view. Humans live on in their influence, and in their children, he wrote.