I don't think anyone, brilliant scientist or Pope, is any more of an authority or expert on spirituality than any other person. Both of them and everyone should be free to share their beliefs, observations and experiences. We're all sharing this experience of a universe where some things are concrete and provable, some things are subjective and mysterious, and where we will all eventually die. There may well be nothing after that. If there is something afterward, we'll know for sure when we get there, and if there really is nothing... absolutely no one can know for sure and will never know for sure.

But, I think that a society in which people use beliefs which are taken on faith, and by their very definition, unprovable, to limit others' quality of life or to outright cause others harm, could benefit a great deal from learning where to draw the line between personal spiritual paradigm and collectively observable reality. I think it's good that a respected, visible scientist has spoken up publicly about his atheism, not because it makes him any more right, but because I think we as a society need to be able to better accept that some people don't have religious beliefs.