Is there justifiable religious explaination for the cosmos?

As a teacher and aspiring author, I tend to wander the library an pick up & read random books. One day I saw Hawking in the novel section of the school library. George's Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking was what I'd picked up and because Stephen Hawking's name was on the cover I HAD to read it. In the back of the book there was a Q&A section and one question asked Stephen if his lack of decribing the universe without a creator reflected upon his personal beliefs. To that he replied such theological issues were not appropriate for a children's book (and I agree) but it made me wonder how the religious justifiably explain the universe, cosmos, etc when such knowledge was not avaliable at the time their holy books were scribed.