I'm convinced that art and science activate the same parts of the brain.

In physics, your solution should convince a reasonable person. In math, you have to convince a person who's trying to make trouble. Ultimately, in physics, you're hoping to convince Nature. And I've found Nature to be pretty reasonable.

The answer to the ancient question Why is there something rather than nothing would be that nothingis unstable.

I went off to college planning to major in math or philosophy-- of course, both those ideas are really the same idea.

Why is there something rather than nothing?

The brain rewards us for interacting with beautiful things. In this way, evolution wants to encourage us to do what is good for us.

When religion talks about our aspirations and our sense of morality, I do not believe that science can contradict it. However, when religion contradicts science on matters of fact, religion must yield.