It seems that there has always been, for the inquiring human mind, the need to know the ultimate purpose of existence. Even Japan had its gods. People of many nations and cultures appear to be abandoning irrational, divisive 'God hypotheses', but I strongly suspect that most retain an essential insight into an inexpressible 'purpose'. Such insight doubtless fails to qualify, in the conventional sense, as theistic; yet it was probably always behind the failed hypotheses and, in itself, it is the answer to that age old question 'why?'.

"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once" - John Wheeler