The nature of physical theory.

So, the question being asked here is whether physics and the laws of nature are just tidy bookkeeping in nature, or are they here for some other, perhaps higher reason. Paul Davies, from the Arizona State University speculates about the nature of physical theory, and complains that at the core of rationality, as exemplified by science, lies a firm belief that the Universe is ordered and comprehensible. Such a belief is not too far removed, perhaps, from believing that the Universe was coughed up by a huge fish, or that the world sits on top of a huge turtle, or perhaps even that it was made by a nice old white man with a huge beard (think a Caucasian Rabindranath Tagore) who rested on the 7th 24 hr cycle.

The problem is again one of the chicken and the egg, what was it that breathed fire into equations, to borrow someone's very picturesque phrase? This discussion carries a lot of weight, including amongst others, opinions by Weinburg and Hawking. Well, I don't know what to think.... personally, I feel a mechanistic view of the Universe is all we can achieve... any further beyond that, and we begin questioning the whole reason for existing anyway, and that leads to ruinously long coffee hour discussions.