Let's look first at some scientists. According to quantum mechanics, the emptiest possible void of outer space is never really completely empty. In a stroke, he reduced creation from a metaphysical event to a physical one. What had seemed unknowable was suddenly reduced to a set of equations. Of course not.
Physicists enjoy dreaming about all sorts of fantastic things.
It is an exercise in creative imagination that can sometimes lead to valuable discoveries. But not too many of them would make the leap from imagining the whole universe popping into existence to telling their creditors that their checks have bounced because they thought that money would be popping into their checking accounts out of nothing. What is possible to imagine because of the mathematical structure of quantum theory doesn't necessarily translate into reality. Vilenkin's speculations don't immediately have some kind of philosophical or religious import despite what the author of the article may have imagined. The need for an explanation for the origin of the universe still confrontsus, and we don't need to run about frantically trying to fathom the theological and spiritual implications of the universe popping into existence from nothing.