A Thought for Those That Say ONLY Mind and Reason Exist

Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow: "At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Stephen Hawking, writing about the possibility of discovering a unified theory, in "A Brief History of Time": "Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God."

More poetically, from Annie Dillard (if you haven't read her, you're in for a treat. Highly recommend "Pilgrimage at Tinker Creek", a very influential book in my life.)
This is from "Teaching a Stone to Talk":

"Now we are no longer primitive. Now the whole world seems not holy...We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism...It is difficult to undo our own damage and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it. We are lighting matches in vain under every green tree. Did the wind used to cry and the hills shout forth praise? Now speech has perished from among the lifeless things of the earth, and living things say very little to very few...And yet it could be that wherever there is motion there is noise, as when a whale breaches and smacks the water, and wherever there is stillness there is the small, still voice, God's speaking from the whirlwind, nature's old song and dance, the show we drove from town...What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn't us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both saying: Hello?"

If there is no more to existence than existing, do my atheist and rationalist friends contend that there is no meaning in life? If that's true, why do any act of love or compassion? Why isn't murder and destruction just as acceptable as an act of mercy? I ask them, why are humans the only life that is self aware? The rational mind being omnipotent, they should be able to explain this, and our existence.