It is highly unlikely that we, while incarnate, will ever know with absolute certainty that we live on after death; it is not something subject to a mathematical equation.

Moreover, knowing with absolute certainty might very well reduce the challenge and stifle purpose. While in exile, the great French author Victor Hugo asked a medium talking to a spirit who identified himself as Martin Luther why God does not better reveal himself.

The reply: "Because doubt is the instrument which forges the human spirit. If the day were to come when the human spirit no longer doubted, the human soul would fly off and leave the plow behind, for it would have acquired wings. The earth would lie fallow. Now, God is the sower and man is the harvester. The celestial seed demands that the human plowshare remain in the furrow of life."

Christianity would have embraced such words had they been recorded in the Bible, but because they came after the Bible they are viewed as coming from a wolf in sheep's clothing, a beast intent on confounding us and leading us astray.

If we are to find real purpose in our everyday lives, if we are to escape the hedonistic materialism of today's world, we must first find meaning in our existence. We must begin by freeing ourselves from the fetters of fundamentalism in both science and religion.

"Seek and you shall find," said Jesus, who also told followers that there was much more to say but they (and presumably all people of that time) could not yet bear it.

There is so much to be found outside the highly guarded boundaries of mainstream science and orthodox religion for those willing to open their minds to it, for those willing to recognize that the dissemination of truth did not stop with the good books of organized religion and cannot always be found in the laboratory.

If the world is ready to bear it, science must move from pseudo-skepticism to true, open-minded skepticism, looking at the results of psychical research in areas such as the near-death experience and after-death communication, while orthodox religion must exit its fortress and permit its faithful to move from pseudo-faith to conviction by opening itself to the lessons of the near-death experience and credible, discernible post-biblical spirit communication.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that the world view of either mainstream science or orthodox religion will significantly change in the foreseeable future. Thus, we can only hope for a gradual spiritual awakening led by those who see the errors in their smug, self-serving, self-righteous, closed-minded thinking and courageously go public with their newfound views.

Only when we abandon the "determination not to believe" and accept what Harvard professor William James referred to as the "will to believe" can purpose be restored to our lives. Only then will hedonism give way to lives of hope, tolerance, patience, forbearance, kindness, love and service.

Kailua resident Mike Tymn serves as vice president of the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies.