From Ken Francis, journalism prof and author of The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth, via a road trip through the United States, New English Review:
On the Reagan road trip, there are many fond memories beneath those soulful, Doo-wop skies over the vast desert plains off Route 66. Driving into the night, with the car window rolled down and the radio playing A Thousand Miles Away by the Heartbeats, the fragrance of the desert breeze was enough to induce slumber. What did a tiny spec of metal automobile, crawling slowly below on the desert floor, like a nocturnal lightning bug, look like from the night splendor of those starry constellations? A sky where the vastness of God’s Milky Way can be seen in all its miraculous glory. No smoke from factories or other pollution to spoil the view. Such a kaleidoscope is enough to trigger a seizure of vertigo. And no other landscape or skyscape could evoke such feelings of calm and awe. Back then in my Godless youth, the whole experience should’ve been nothing more than a Westworld robot gazing at the light of distant, uncreated nuclear fusion. But I must’ve intuitively believed in a Divine Creator. How could such a wonderful sight be nothing more than a cosmic ocean of meaningless particles flowing endlessly into the abyss? More.
Absurd, yes But it is increasingly useful for governments if the public believes there is nothing out there or inside us that judges or even can judge government actions.
See also: Explaining ethics to naturalists is like explaining epiphenomenalism to a dead horse
and
Can science survive long in a post-modern world? It’s not clear.