Discerning the merits of competing claims is where the empirical basis of science should play a role. I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false. What fails the test of empirical reality, as determined by observation and experiment, gets thrown out like yesterday's newspaper.

If our species is to survive, our future will probably require outposts beyond our own planet.

You shouldn't be afraid of science. Accepting the reality of nature makes life more exciting and even more precious.

The universe does not care what we want.

Empirical explorations ultimately change our understanding of which questions are important and fruitful and which are not.

The universe has a much greater imagination than we do, which is why the real story of the universe is far more interesting than any of the fairy tales we have invented to describe it.

Metaphysical speculation is independent of the physical validity of the Big Bang itself and is irrelevant to our understanding of it.