Well, it's Einstein's Spinozist, atheistic "religion" that I'm exploring. It's meant to be grounded in the ironies of scientific disenchantment (objectification of nature).
The "virtual plan" in the unfolding of natural processes is just how the nomic regularities can be understood as having beginning, middle, and end points that are relevant to life in that they establish our existential situation.
By "profound," I think I meant existentially revelatory. It certainly needn't mean reassuring, as in a theological "blessing." The existential perspective is first of all a source of cosmic horror, which for me is the bedrock of secular enlightenment.
This is why that article criticizes the more optimistic, feel-good form of pantheism (although I hope the awesome sci-fi scenario turns out to be true).
