If we are merely matter intricately assembled, is this really demeaning? If there's nothing here but atoms, does that make us less or does that make matter more?

An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence.

we make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers

All colours are arbitrary.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

A stars rich in europium; of distant galaxies analyzed through the collective light of a hundred billion constituent stars. Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still. Auguste Comte picked a particularly unfortunate example.

How lucky we are to live in this time / the first moment in human history / when we are in fact visiting other worlds