Human beings, like all animals, are equipped by evolution with a ferocious instinct of self-preservation. As simians, we also have a highly developed sense of curiosity. These two characteristics combine with each other to give us a desire to understand the world as well as to attempt to prolong our stay in it as long as possible. Indeed, the former helps us to achieve the latter.

But when we actually observe the world around us, we see a universe ruled by chance, one entirely indifferent to us, a world where the evil and the good are just as likely to prosper or fail. This leads to fear and desperation. Only in the human world of family and friends, our associates and acquaintances, do we see alliance and cooperation, empathy and love. In other humans lies assistance and empathy, love and friendship. But even this sphere has enemies and rivals, conflict and competition.

Religion and superstition offer us a world governed by an intelligence, or at least by some sense of rules and order, an order which can be lobbied, communicated with, negotiated with. If we do this, we can get that. Quid pro quo. Our lives can be converted to transactions, and if we hold up our share of the bargain, perhaps the divinity or the ritual of magic can be coaxed to provide us with assistance, and of course, immortality.

But a few thousand years ago, a new method of dealing with the nature of reality arose, one we call science, and this new philosophy has shown itself to be extremely effective at solving certain kinds of problems, and answering certain kinds of questions. In just the last few centuries, science has established itself as a remarkably successful mechanism to reduce the uncertainty and fear and ignorance that plagues us. Unfortunately, science is neither infallible, nor complete. It may protect us from chaos to a certain extent, but it also is helpless to aid us in many other circumstances, particularly the ones that really matter. What's worse, it does nothing to reinforce our desire to live in a Universe which can be reasoned with, prayed to, persuaded or convinced to come to our aid. On the contrary, science not only has revealed a universe which is random and chaotic and knows not us, it even rejects the very notion of an anthropocentric cosmos that can meet our emotional needs.

Consequently, science is rejected, it must be wrong because if it is not we are forced to accept that the physical universe (not the man-made one of family and community) simply is not aware of us, much less is capable of reponding to our requests or our offerings. In societies dominated by science, engineering and technology, they are often rejected because it is a threat to this very human need for a friendly universe. Any shred of evidence that the scientists might be wrong, about anything, offers hope that perhaps the world of hidden forces and a conscious, kindly cosmos may still exist. If the scientists are wrong about Bigfoot, or UfOs, then maybe they are wrong about God.

It's an oversimplification, of course, many scientists are religious, and perhaps Bigfoot or UFOs do exist in some form, but that's not the point.
A great many people distrust science beacuse it cannot answer the questions they are asking, and it cannot offer them the hope they so desperately want. So the world is filled with superstition and pseudoscience, many beliefs, some of which even adopt the terminology
or superficially copy the methods of science. Astrology, cryptozooolgy, Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle, Velikovskiyism, numerology, the occult, psychic phenomena, feng shui, holistic medicine, prophecy, acupuncture, psychiatry, ...I could go on, but you get the picture.

Of course, science is a human activity, it makes mistakes, it suffers from fads, and sometimes it is even dead wrong. Sometimes, it even learns that what it once believed to be a pseudoscience turns out to be the real thing after all. But that's not the point, the issue is not what the scores of competing philosophies are, it is the idea that every failure, perceived or legitimate, of science is gleefully seized upon because it offers hope that maybe it is wrong in its major suspicion, that the universe is exactly what it appears to be, a set of rules that govern how blind and impersonal forces act on themselves. Matter and energy, interacting in time and space, nothing more.

The supreme irony is that this spiritual connection with the cosmos that we seek is already known to us. It exists without question. The universe is a lifeless machine, but we are not. We all carry within us the miracle of consciousness, we think, we know, we communicate with our fellows. Somehow, this world of atoms and gravity and electricity we live in makes us possible. THAT is magic, that is a true miracle, that is the real God, right behind our eyes. We don't need telepathy to communicate, we have learned to modulate sound to do it, we convert thought to ripples in air which we perceive and convert back into thought again. Can you imagine that? And we've learned to make scratches and wiggles with pen and ink that can freeze those motions of air where we have written our thoughts. To me, that is an absolutely staggering accomplishment. We don't need no stinking extra sensory perception, any seven year old already knows how to do something much more wonderful.

If you think about it, that is bloody amazing! We don't need telekinesis, we have hands, we don't need teleportation, we have legs. We are conscious beings with the capacity to perceive and alter the physical universe of matter and energy, we are gods, we are magic. And through our understanding of the nature of physical reality (science) we can extend those godlike powers with the aid of our machines, and we can share this knowledge with our fellows as well as with those not born yet. We can even learn the wisdom of the dead through their writings. Think about it, we can speak with the dead and with the unborn without the aid of ghosts or reincarnation. That is truly a miracle. We may not be able to live forever, but we can live much longer, and yes, we can kill on a mass scale too.

But we can't do it all. Science also teaches us life offers us no guarantees, and it still ends in death, and that we have our limitations as well because we are a part of the universe, not separate from it; and understanding this will bring us humility as well as wisdom.