The Great Beyond

What is the drive that encourages us to reach beyond our day to day existence in what is an ever increasing atheistic society and how do we attain these sensations of breaking the shackles of everyday life. Why cant we take the world at face value? What is the biological mechanism for this desire?

It's seems to me that Humans thrive in chaos, we yearn for it. We seem to enjoy the fear of things that are bigger than ourselves. Perhaps it is a run off from the days when we lived in the wild, where a predator could be round any corner and our environment will constantly change around us, ever upsetting the balance.