. . . Moon-Watcher felt the first faint twinges of a new and potent emotion. It was a vague and diffuse sense of envy — of dissatisfaction with his l… - Arthur C. Clarke

no one of intelligence resents the inevitable.

Moon-Watcher and his companions had no recollection of what they had seen, after the crystal had ceased to cast its hypnotic spell over their minds and to experiment with their bodies. The next day, as they went out to forage, they passed it with scarcely a second thought; it was now part of the disregarded background of their lives. They could not eat it, and it could not eat them; therefore it was not important.

Atheism is unprovable, so uninteresting. However unlikely it is, we can never be certain that God once existed — and has now shot off to infinity, where no one can ever find him… Like Gautama Buddha, I take no position on this subject.