Do you know what I believe, Miss Whittaker? Regarding your question on the...

Do you know what I believe, Miss Whittaker? Regarding your question on the origins of human compassion and self-sacrifice? I believe that evolution explains nearly everything about us, and I certainly believe it explains absolutely everything about the rest for the natural world, But I do not believe that evolution alone can account for our unique human consciousness. There is no evolutionary need, you see, for us to have such acute sensitivities of intellect and emotion. There is no practical need for the minds that we have. We do not need a mind that can play chess, Miss Whittaker. We don't need a mind that can invent religions or argue over our origins. We don't need a mind that causes us to weep at the opera. We don't need opera, for that matter - nor science, nor art. We don't
need ethics, morality, dignity or sacrifice. We don't need affection or love - certainly not to the degree that we feel it. If anything, our sensibilities can be a liability, for they can cause us to suffer distress. So I do not believe that the process of natural selection gave us this minds - even though I do believe that it did give us these bodies, and most of our abilities. Do you know why I think we have these extraordinary minds? {...}'
I will tell why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker {...} we have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery, and it grants us these remarkable minds, in order that we try to reach for it. It wants us to find it. It wants union with us, more than anything.