Fucking hell some of you people are dense...
Yes, we know very little, and there is a lot we don't know. Therefore, we need to stay away from idiotic speculation, and stick with those things we can be fairly certain about. In other words, we need to use a minimalist thesis.
The minimalist thesis, right now, is pure materialism. Everything we have right now that we can be fairly certain of is physics. Clearly, if there are things we don't understand yet, they are infinitely more likely to be the result of ill-understood parts of physics (or a meta thereof, like chemistry, biology, etc) than of a completely speculated theory with no roots in empirical data and experiments.
KRL, has it occurred to you that it is extremely ridiculous to say "there are things we don't understand", and then follow that up with a completely made up list of planes of being and such? If you think there are things we don't understand, then fine, we don't understand them yet. The end. (at least for now)
People talking about souls, astral planes, the essence of life etc. are little better than the people who believe they will appease the gods by giving money to cult leaders. "Hey, we don't know everything yet, so everything is as valid as everything else!" Bloody hell, how stupid can you be?
Oh, and as for death, death is not scary because of what comes after it, but because of what it actually is: a limitation of life. Death is never experiencing life as a Japanese doctor in the 30th century, never being a Russian high school kid, never seeing all movies ever made, never leading a life in which you are a philosopher, a doctor, a physicist, a programmer, a gigolo, a judge, a professional athlete, an astronaut AND president. Death is a radical limitation on the possibilities of life, and the certainty that there are millions of great things you will never experience. Now that's scary
