Where do we go when we die?

Some people wonder how humans got here, and if there is a purpose in life.

A parachurch organization was out canvassing people, trying to engage them in religious dialouge. One exchange went like this:

Q - "Do you know where you go when you die?"
A - "Uh, Pittsburg. I'll be buried in Pittsburg."

Not everyone asks "ultimate" questions.

Many religions offer an answer to the questions of where we came from, where we are going, and why we are here. If I am honest, I say that science also offers an answer. We came from organic molecules, and we return to organic molecules. We are here to pass on our genes (and we are being used by the bacteria in our gut so they can pass on their genes).

I also think that this answer is true. It is useful. It tells me all sorts of true and helpful things about me, the people around me, and the world I live in. Is it all there is? Is it the only answer? I don't think so. Can I proove it? Not in the scientific sense.

Does that mean science is a religion, or that science and religion are in competition? No. I think religion involves some sort of revelation (received truth) and postualtes the existence of the supernatural (but where does that leave some eastern religions?).

I think science constantly revises its dogma (but is full of the hide-bound, conservative, and the agenda-laden - that is to say- humans). What was believed about the world in the 18th century is different in many important respects from what science believes today. This is an admirable and fairly unique claim.

Because science claims to say what is true about the natural world, it will always run afoul of those who, for religious, commercial or political motives, wish to assert that the world is somehow else.