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The part of your post that really made me think is that after a careful consideration of all the evidence you became depressed by the idea that we lack free-will.

Then you told yourself a new story and it helped you come out of that depression.

It turns out that this was a useful story. It probably was also a story that to some extent accounted for more evidence than some of the older stories about free will (Garden of Eden, for example). But in some ways your story served the same purpose, it helped you believe that your choices and by extension, life were meaningful.

This is a super important story, but one that we constantly forced to re-adjust in the face of the evidence. 

For some reason your story also reminds me of the Total Perspective Vortex from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  According to Wikipedia, the Total Reality Vortex is “the most horrible torture device to which a sentient being can be subjected. Located on Frogstar World B, it shows its victim the entire unimaginable infinity of the universe with a very tiny marker that says "You Are Here" which points to a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot. The machine was invented  machine invented by one Trin Tragula in order to annoy his wife. Because she was forever nagging him for having no sense of proportion, he decided to invent something that would show her what having a sense of proportion really meant. Unfortunately the shock of being placed in the Vortex destroyed her brain, but Trin Tragula's grief was tempered by the knowledge that he had been right and she had been wrong. The Total Perspective Vortex had proved that in an infinite universe the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.”

Due the magic of the internet the Total Perspective Vortex is now online.

But not everyone reacts badly to the Vortex . Zaphod Beeblbrox entered the TPV and came out believing himself to be the most important being in the universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaphod_Beeblebrox . I think Donald Trump or Bill Clinton would probably reach the same conclusion. 

Good science education can be a bit like the Total Perspective Vortex. Its mind blowing and can make us feel small, powerless and rather insignificant.  Maybe that’s why its so important for people to believe in a personal God.  The alternative seems too depressing.

But, call me crazy, I think that paradoxically good science education is also our path to salvation, er, a more meaningful place in the universe.  No, the Sun doesn’t revolve around us in this story, but after a whole lot of thinking and tinkering we were able to figure out how to build a little contraption that flew up and landed on the moon! 

Maybe we were no longer at the certain of the universe in this new story, but we had used our knowledge to explore the vastness of the universe.  Maybe we no longer have the a special and privileged space at the center of creation, but we are interacting with creation in very interesting ways.

Stay Calm, we may not know what it all means, but at least its funny.