From
Richard Feynman's The Meaning of It All:
Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist:
It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe, beyond man, to
contemplate what it would be like without man, as it was in a great
part of its long history and as it is in a great majority of
places. When this objective view is finally attained, and the
mystery and majesty of matter are fully appreciated, to then turn
the objective eye back on man viewed as matter, to view life as
part of this universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an
experience which is very rare, and very exciting. It usually ends
in laughter and delight in the futility of trying to understand
what this atom in the universe is, this thing - atoms with
curiosity - that looks at itself and wonders why it wonders. Well,
these scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in
uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that
the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch
man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.