[Lychee]

No. Simplicity and complexity aren't at odds--our universe is both. But creating an explanation of the universe which is fundamentally more vague and complex than it needs to be is unnecessary and distorts our view of the universe.

Of course. But the existence of the Creator does not distort the universe. It just alter your own view in a way which you don't like.

Of course we don't. But that doesn't mean we should invent the answers that we don't know.

That's assuming that holy text (some of them, anyway) were fabricated by humans, creating a deity. What if it really was sent by God?

I disagree. Logical explanations are not at odds with deep emotions. For me, studying math and observing the world creates almost a religious ecstasy, that I wouldn't give up for any religion. The more rational, orderly, and complex the more at home I feel in the world.

Some people want to be one with God; I want to prove the Riemann hypothesis.

I understand. Some people find ecstasy in math, in art, in doing adventurous things. But haven't you ever wondered if there was something more out there, something beyond math? Who's to say that math is the end?

To me there is nothing more spiritual than the physical world.

We are living under blessed conditions where we don't have to worry about the basic necessities. I'm sure other people will disagree that this physical world is the most spiritual place to be. But regardless, we'll all leave the physical world so what would be the point in studying and proving the Rieman hypothesis? It might bring momentary satisfaction that may have some consequence on the world, but we'll die anyway, and I've read theories on how the world will end too. In the end, what would it matter?

Does there always have to be a reason or a cause? What is the reason for the the most ultimate reason then? Somewhere there's a starting place, where the question "why" in the sense you mean it doesn't mean anything.

You just said yourself that you feel at home in a rational world. Why is asking that question irrational? People discovered the fruits we enjoy today because they never stopped questioning.

There is no "necessity" for gravitation; it just is. Our existence is necessitated by the physical laws that created us. There is no meaning inherent in that, but we as thinking organisms give it one.

Nothing in this world exists without a reason. Anything superfluous and unharmonious is ousted by nature.

I don't understand why death makes life meaningless. We simply have to deal with the fact that our lives are finite--but in a way that makes everything we do all the *more* meaningful. If we have only shot to do it, we had better do it right.

Maybe it has to do with how you perceive time. For some, the past is dead and lost no matter what. When they die, their lives instantly becoming meaningless bygones.

You find meaning in proving the Riemann hypothesis. Others find meaning stealing from others, committing crimes, and causing injustice in the world. How are the two similar? How can they both reach the final destination without any discrimination between the way people lived their lives? That destroys the meaning and purpose that each person ever lived their lives for.