There's an echo here. Fascinating.

If man did not exist, I think I would almost feel compelled to invent him, just to see what silly, dualistic religions and equally silly anti-religious philosophies he could dream up to keep his mind engaged and his ego pacified.

At any rate, I'd be tempted to...that's for sure. Man is very intriguing. He's most often like an egocentric fish that doesn't know there's a living ocean all around him and even within him at all times. "There is no ocean!" he declares proudly, swimming about in its eternal embrace, and he pats himself on the back for his cleverness and independent spirit in the face of a seemingly uncaring and insentient Universe. Almost deviod of any real meaning within, reacting merely to outer stimuli and chaotic inner mind-chatter, he looks outside himself and sees what he thinks is a meaningless world. He is thus seeing his own fragmentary consciousness reflected in the great living mirror of Life itself.

Life observes him with Love, but remains unseen to his eyes. He is a sleepwalker lost in a dream of his own making.