Is there any reason for our existence on this planet? Does our life here have a meaning or a purpose? Is there a life beyond the grave? Is there any hope for a humanity universally beset by the misery and anguish of pain, disease, injustice, war and death or quite simply the consciousness of the manifold limitations of its own nature? These are but a few of the questions which constitute the enigma of human destiny, the enigma which has vexed men's minds for millennia and which is arguably the most vital, fundamental and crucial problem to which we are able to address our selves.