Have you been in a bookstore lately? What about a movie theater? Have you listened to popular music? If so, you have surely noticed an upsurge in spirituality and artistic sensuality of all kinds. Harry Potter, Twilight, Avatar, the list goes on of what we like to watch or read in the arts. These things inspire us, move us in ways the regular world often does not. Make us feel like there’s more out there — that life is more interesting and inspiring than the daily grind would have us think.

Even the noted physicist and atheist Stephen Hawking needs to think there’s more out there. In a recent media interview he stated that while aliens likely exist, they would not be our friends. So at least now I can put away the welcome mat.

What a strange statement from Hawking. I know that the evidence for aliens is mounting, but to me this is out of place coming from someone who prides himself on purely rational, evidence-based thought processes. I haven’t seen any aliens today. At least I don’t think I have. Somehow I doubt that Hawking has either.

It’s also interesting to me that in our increasingly nihilistic world where we have stripped “belief” from our schools and lives, that our youth have become increasingly spiritualistic in their choice of art forms.

It’s almost like the human heart yearns for something more.