Lately I’ve been watching and reading some fascinating discussion (increasingly visible, of late) on the existence — or non-existence — of “God.” Richard Dawkins (et al) seemed at first to be an expected phenomenon, the scientist sucked dry of non-rational (spiritual) nature.

This documentary has Dawkins exploring the question “Why are we here?” The intriguing and lovely idea this leads to is something of a circular koan: We are here, because along the way, natural selection brought us to a turning point, giving us a sophisticated brain that was able to conceive, plan and execute. To strive, and ultimately, to ask this very question.

Turning the answer into an examination of the question is, of course, a way to avoid answering it. But if one accepts that this innate, hard-wired sense of “purpose” � setting goals and achieving them � has so become a part of who and what we are, it follows that when we observe the natural world around us, we inevitably assume it, too, to be purpose-driven (“intelligently designed”). The very fact that we ask the question “why?” (and inevitably turn the question inward) says more about what we are than anything.