I’m on the same road right now, asking myself the same question. I’ve been trying to mentally blending concepts from philosophy (especially nihilism, absurdism and existentialism), science knowledge and esoteric beliefs (such as primordial waters and the darkness before the light, a seemingly constant aspect throughout the many religious faiths) in a syncretic way. As the community is focused on the first, I’ll try to focus my comment to the realm of philosophy.

Somehow, we think. As Descartes would state, we are existent beings, given that we think. We’re kind of “stuck” with it (with our thoughts and feelings, therefore, stuck with our own existences), something to deal with. We can either (a) hold to the mundane, trying to ignore the vast and dark macrocosmos and microcosmos around and inside us (apeiron) because it’s so shadowy and scary, but it’ll still be there, or (b) gaze into that abyss, see the beautiful yet unsettling eyes lurking in the darkness, while trying to free ourselves from the shackles of the fear we would naturally feel when She looks back. Given the aspects of your question, I guess you did the same as me: you stared at Her, even if unbeknownst to you.

Here, I’m kind of “personifying/deifing” the infinite nothingness a.k.a. the apeiron, as I see this infinite nothingness with great potential as a feminine energy (I could name Nuith from Thelema, but i’d digress from philosophy), because our very existences came from it, so the apeiron is like the mother of the entire existence (and, therefore, our æthereal mother). I’m aware that apeiron is said to be something that “cannot be described” (ineffable), but the premise still holds: whatever is the nature of apeiron, everything that exists seem to came from there, and it’s going back to there.

The death is our return to Her waters. Scientifically, we could point out the cycle of nitrogen, water and carbon, the Food Web, the thermal dissipation (especially the entropy and tendency of disorder) and so on. Our natural bodies return to the nature in a seamless fashion. Spiritually and metaphysically, we could point out the anima inside ourselves, our very selves.

What if we choose the alternative A above, living a finite life holding to the mundane while ignoring the cosmic, without realizing the potential infinite beyond it, until our living clocks reach midnight and our consciousness somehow stays “turned on” surrounded by the vast nothingness, emptier than the void of the cosmos?

While my approach clearly digress into realms outside philosophy (because of the esoteric components of my approach), it also can offer a potential answer to the question of why we seek knowledge: to connect with something greater than ourselves. To connect to our very selves, with our potentials.