dhw: Three answers that bring joy to my agnostic heart!-Steinhardt has been one of my favorite physicists, not because of his cyclical universe membrane-banging theory of years ago, which seemed weird to me, but his honesty about where we really are at this point in our knowledge, which is a giant pause in major understandings for over 30+ years. Another is Matt Strassler, an advisor to the LHC, who also gives careful thought to what is currently happening without presenting outrageous possibilities like Stephan Hawking has been doing.