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It is an interesting question. Depending on your religion, or lack of, we ascribe meaning to various things. Some people may recover from a terminal disease and see that as having some deeper meaning whilst others would just say "gee, that was lucky".
Curiousity has been raised by several people and I see it as more a trait of intelligence rather than humanity. Many animals are curious, some purely for reasons of self protection others for less important reasons, more like "what the hell is that?" As the intelligence level increases, curiousity increases. We just got a new TV on Sunday. An ant crawling along the unit it was sitting on would just crawl over it. The cat came into the room and froze, staring at it. After a few minutes she was satisfied it presented no threat and settled on the mat nearby. Our daughter came into the room and after commenting on how much better it would look in her room, sat and watched for a while.
I personally like to term myself as a "pure athiest", meaning I don't believe in anything that requires belief in order to effect me. If I don't believe in gravity, I don't suddenly float to the ceiling. You don't have to believe in gravity in order for it to effect you. If I believed in astrology (note all lower case and tiny to show my lack of belief) and my horoscope says I must not go outside today because I will surely die, and I stay at home...and live, it will confirm my belief. If I went outside oblivious to my fatal destiny and survived, astrology had no effect on me. It would only effect people who believed in the subject. If I persue no religious acts throughout my life, my life continues unaffected by this. Reinforcing my "non belief". If I was highly religious in my persuits and belief, my religion would effect my life profoundly. Not "believing", does not make my life a misery.
I like to recall a very profound saying from Mr Richard Dawkins in a recent book. "Good people do good things, evil people do evil things, only religion can cause good people to do evil things." In many cases the "more" religious, the more "evil", although not in their views.
We are here because we are here. We are here for the ride. If we were not here, the Universe would still be here, only we would not be here to observe it, and the Universe would not bat an eyelid! Just as a tree falling in a forest still makes a noise regardless of whether there is anyone or anything there to hear it, I am talking in a real sense and not the philosophical. Philosopher's philosophise, they don't do "science".
My two cents, I appologise sincerely if my lack of religion offends anyone. I never take offence when religous people may offer to pray for me or do I wish that they were less religious. I only hope my lack of belief does not cause them to wish I became more religious. This IS offensive.
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