Realization of Destiny goals depends on many factors, but in general, nothing of consequence is likely to happen unless scientific research first determines and then provides the physical means to evolve Humanity. People can choose either to support Destiny or to deny its realization, but no one can force Destiny to happen without the causative factor of useful scientific research to move us from concept to realization. The promotion and use of scientific research is thus the single most important factor in moving towards our future. It is for that reason we will now look at the world of scientific knowledge and purpose from a philosophical perspective. What is science? What is the purpose of science? What is not science?

Socrates was famous for his maddening habit of forcing his students and his contemporaries to define their terms explicitly before using them in a philosophical argument. This activity guaranteed that philosophical discussion occurred within the framework of a shared awareness of the meaning and definitional limits of all essential terms. That practice can be tedious but it is sometimes necessary to ensure people do not individually make wrong assumptions about an expressed thought.

We common people quickly become bored and irritated when faced with pedantic, long-winded explanations of what we perceive to be simple terms. That fact provides for our ability, on the one hand, to have quick communication, with the assumption of shared understanding. The drawback is that we have developed the bad habit of using words in inappropriate and multiple ways, thus confusing the very simplicity and precision that would guarantee accurate communication. Simply review any ten words chosen randomly in one of the better dictionaries and you will understand how severe this problem has become.

Science, in its broadest recognized definition, is the organized, systematized body of knowledge about virtually any subject that lends itself to systematized description. That definition is the reason we find the term science associated with almost any human activity that can be organized and systematized. Alas, the broad definition says nothing about the fundamental value of the subject or activity.

Those of us who have chosen careers in the physical or natural sciences, like physics or chemistry or biology tend to react with disdain when confronted with a loose use of the word science, for to us, science has a very unique purpose and definition. It is the organized study of natural phenomena with the purpose of understanding in detail the operation of the phenomena, so that we can harness our understanding to promote further growth of knowledge and non-trivial practical application. There is no such thing as science for its own sake.

It follows that lack of efficacy or obvious lack of complexity reduces any organized, systematized study of anything from a science to a craft until it earns respect by yielding non-trivial and consistent results and resultant theories from complex study, and especially a logical direction for continued, more complex study.

Natural science is so large and complex that it is now the preferred domain of our most brilliant humans. The lesser human activities, like politics, while meaningful to the participants, and usefully studied for effective results, are not science. Even philosophy has been challenged as a science, for it has not produced a commonly understood, provable explanation for our existence, or our purpose, and the growth of knowledge in the natural sciences cuts like a scythe through historical philosophical conjectures, for philosophy, unlike natural science, is not in the business of providing tangible proofs.

Philosophy and the individual philosophers who have attempted to understand our existence and promote our knowledge were the necessary antecedents to natural science. It matters not that philosophers disagreed with each other, for most of them did live in the domain of near total ignorance. The very best minds could not define anything more than their life experiences suggested as possible. They were brilliant people imprisoned in their time in history. Thus, most of their efforts were ingrown concerning what they wrote about, i.e. politics and ethics and aesthetics as they found relevant in their societies and earlier societies. They could, as you would rationally expect, focus only on life and unanswered questions as they found it/them in their respective locations and periods of history.

The products of philosophers were and are valuable, however, not so much in factual, immutable content but in breadth and depth of coverage. To extract the essence of philosophy requires an immense curiosity, for it must be mined, person by person, thought by thought, to extract the occasional nuggets of gold where they exist. A wise person today will reflect that activity, for distilling the works of earlier philosophers and then synthesizing a coherent philosophy from those essences is a right and responsible challenge. I have the unique advantage of greater factual knowledge about our world, due to natural science, and that knowledge has allowed me to refine the work of earlier philosophers to create Destiny. That I have written Destiny is incidental. Had I not, someone else would. It is purely a matter of timing and coincidence.

The role of past and contemporary philosophers in helping us to understand all facets of our existence has thus diminished with each advance in the natural sciences. Natural science is now the sole discover of reality, and it has assumed the former synthesis role of philosophy. Thus, the role and purpose of natural science today is to understand everything about existence, so that we might realize Destiny. You can expect to transfer the ultimate responsibility for ethics, politics, aesthetics, logic, epistemology and metaphysics to the future leaders of natural science, for only they will have the means as well as the will to answer the ageless questions about existence. This is the Age of Science, and Destiny is the Philosophy of Science, whether or not specific, current scientists have any awareness of Destiny.

The modern scientist is thus responsible for our evolution, for others cannot, nor could they ever, move our species away from our inherent limitations in mental prowess or physical health. That this fundamental truth is difficult to accept is unfortunate, but it is none-the-less the truth. The other activities of Humanity, while essential to our physical survival, and important to each of us as individuals, pale in comparison of importance. Modern scientists will provide our means to seek and find the greatest knowledge of all. Science, then, is not a religion, but the means to realize the highest goal of religion, which is to be One with our Creator, whatever that means.