There are some conditions of the brain which predispose the mind to mystical or religious thinking. When people have seizures in particular brain areas, the so-called temporal lobes, they may experience religious or mystical visions. And even between seizures they may have a gradual personality change which disposes them to mystical or religious thinking. So I think that thinking of this sort is, in a sense, “built in” to the nervous system, although it doesn’t have to take an explicitly religious or theistic form.

Einstein used to say that the most beautiful thing in the world is the mysterious. And I think that the fundamental sense of mystery and awe, and of the sublime, is behind all science and art. 

I think science basically springs from a sense of Nature’s mysteriousness and the wonder of Nature. And there is no need to invoke anything supernatural. Indeed, I think too much involvement in the supernatural may blind one to the wonder of Nature. 

I live, for myself, happily and completely within Nature. I love it. I have a sense of being at home. I don’t pine for anything else. 

So I think those parts of my temporal lobes are devoted to, as it were, an almost religious feeling for Nature. 

Oliver Sacks

500 million years ago, this desert was a sea: warm and shallow, teeming with life. For 400 million years, marine animals and plants thrived in the sun-lit depths of this watery world.

These rocks tell a story of ancient seas and beaches, of times when heat from deep inside Earth changed the mantle at the surface. Mostly there are sedimentary rocks, laid down as sand, mud, silt, or lime which slowly turned to stone.

Sedimentary rocks result from erosion and gravity acting on igneous rocks, made from magma, the liquid rock found deep within Earth. Wind, heat, and cold combine with water and ice to wear down these foundation rocks into minute grains of sand, and move them around. Eventually the sand is compressed and cemented together again into new rocks.

Often plant and animal remains are deposited in the mud, sand, and gravel, and are preserved as these soft layers turn to rock. Fossils are used to estimate the ages of geologic formations.

Composed of grains of quartz sand cemented together, sandstones take their color from their cement. Silica or calcite make creamy or white sandstones; iron oxides create deep red colors.

An interesting feature found in desert areas is a dark stain on exposed sandstone walls. In some places this “desert varnish” is continuous and uniform, while in others it forms long ribbons. Varnish occurs when iron or manganese present in the rock interact with water and living organisms such as algae or fungi. Desert varnish provided a natural blackboard for prehistoric artists whose symbols speak to us across thousands of years.

Lime, dissolved in sea water, is extracted by corals and other marine animals to make their shells. When these creatures die, their skeletons sink to the sea floor. Over millions of years, the skeletal fragments are compacted by the weight of overlying deposits and cemented together to form limestone.

Gypsum, called an “evaporite,” formed when ancient seas dried up and left behind various minerals. Gypsum is usually found sandwiched between layers of limestone because later seas covered the mineral with still more limy deposits.

Fossilized (or “petrified,” meaning turned into rocks) wood formed when trees became buried in mud and sand, and gradually changed to stone as minerals replaced decaying wood cells. Even under a microscope, petrified wood shows every detail of the original plant structure.

Rocks subjected to heat, pressure, and chemicals change or metamorphose into new forms. Metamorphic rocks include dolomite (from limestone) and quartzite (from sandstone).

Valley Of Fire Interpretive Sign