"Instead of an intellectual search, there was suddenly a very deep
gut feeling that something was different. It occurred when looking at
Earth and seeing this blue-and-white planet floating there, and knowing
it was orbiting the Sun, seeing that Sun, seeing it set in the
background of the very deep black and velvety cosmos, seeing - rather,
knowing for sure - that there was a purposefulness of flow, of energy,
of time, of space in the cosmos - that it was beyond man's rational
ability to understand, that suddenly there was a non-rational way of
understanding that had been beyond my previous experience. There seems to be more to the universe than random, chaotic, purposeless movement of a collection of molecular particles. On
the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the
stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the
universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious."
