gogul: Reincarnation is not alien to Judaic based religions. It was just rejected by those who decided to formalise western orthodoxy into an easily taught faith. I feel a certain amount of trying to convert pagan religions by keeping certain elements of paganism (of those dominant at the time) was used.

As to science... I don't think it can reject an afterlife as such anymore, so much is coming to light that we don't know everything and that not only is this body of ours a biological organism but also has many EM aspects.

eg .. when I was at school we were taught electrons orbited in a nice clean orbit. Now I learn that science finds that electrons though stay around the nucleus of an atom there is no clear orbit. An electron can jump around, be in more than one place at a time, etc.
..... we are now looking at multiple dimensions to explain gravity and it's weakness, that space/time is bent from gravity and that it is not an attraction as such, but matter falls when faced by gravity. Black holes I was taught nothing could escape from, now certain particles can, and in the end a black hole can explode.

Science is still learning.