Gazing at the stars, falling in love, or listening to music all make us feel a transcendent connection to a cosmic unity and something larger than ourselves. Yet these experiences are not easily understood by science, which holds that everything can be explained in terms of atoms and molecules. Is there room in our scientific worldview for these spiritual experiences? Renowned physicist and novelist Alan Lightman thinks so. Drawing on intellectual history and conversations with contemporary scientists, philosophers, and psychologists, Lightman raises provocative questions that illuminate our strange position between the world of particles, forces, and that of human experience. Can strict materialism explain our appreciation of beauty? Or our feelings of connection to nature and other people? Is there a physical basis for consciousness—the most elusive of all scientific problems? Lightman weaves together these inquiries to propose what he calls spiritual materialism—the belief that we can embrace spiritual experiences without abandoning our scientific worldview. According to him, the breadth of the human condition is not only rooted in material atoms and molecules, but can also be explained in terms of Darwinian evolution. This book reveals that spirituality can not only be compatible with science, but should also remain at the core of what it means to be human.