As a materialist, I would be the last person to recommend the substitution of the mystical for the scientific. But I also recognize that our entire interaction with the universe is channeled through our senses, and our entire interpretation of it springs from our reason and memory, all of which are the fields of study of psychology, not physics.
Experience, perception and reason, are the source of all we know, but meaning, especially in a random and chaotic universe, can come only from our subjective consciousness. Surely you cannot deny that even the scientist's love and respect of the physical universe must have an origin in his own emotional makeup.
My confidence in science remains unshaken, even if my trust in engineering is somewhat challenged by the events you allude to. But I'm convinced the artist has as much to say about the nature of reality as the scientist does.