If this life is what we get, then it highlights why we have to make the most of what we do while not dead.

Do many people believe that their God personally convivs with them in the afterlife, like a hangout buddy?

Survival of bodily death, spirits, ghosts, reincarnation — these are part of our human history, but with some important caveats.

Last week I attended the invigorating talk by renowned primatologist Frans de Waal, on the deep roots of what we had too long tended to think of as quintessentially human: tool use, social cooperation, empathy and a sense of fairness.

Recalling that roughly 45 percent of the American people are Young Earth creationists who don't accept that there was a Big Bang, here's the go for the rest who do pay attention to the science.

They've all been thoughtful and honest, though occasionally carrying implicit assumptions that I have attempted to unpack as best I can.