Numinous

What a great word!
Numinous
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin numin-, numen numen
Date: 1647
1 : Supernatural, mysterious
2 : filled with a sense of the presence of divinity
3 : appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense

It's that expansive feeling you get when you look up at a night sky on a clear, autumn night and the stars seem to pull you out into the universe. It's the sense of marvel you get when watching a seemingly perfectly engineered spider lying in ambush on her perfectly spun web strung with beads of dew. For me it's the feeling I get flying on a warm summer day.

It's a feeling that believers say that secularists, humanists, atheists, Brights can't have. It's the feeling they tell you can only come from "marvelling at the works of god." The quote I always use to counter that argument is one I remember reading years ago. I think it was Richard Dawkins who said, in reply to someone questioning how he could find beauty in science: "Just because I know how a rainbow is made, doesn't mean I don't find it beautiful."

It's probably mangled in my paraphrasing, but it seems to at least blunt their line of attack.

Anyway, what got me started on that was that tonight is one of those perfectly clear, cool, early fall nights. And out where I live there are few houses or outdoor lights around to block out the sky. The stars are... well I was going to use some tired old cliche about diamonds or something, but it just wouldn't do justice.

Numinous. Go find some!