Why We Need Heaven: In troubled times, the afterlife beckons with visions of dark-eyed virgins, gardens and palaces, the bliss of God's eternal presence and the joy of uniting with loved ones. How can the promise of paradise inspire so many to goodness, and few to murder?

From: Newsweek | Date: August 12, 2002| Author: Miller, Lisa | Copyright information

Byline: Lisa Miller

Hagar Zar is sure her husband, Gilad, is in heaven. Perhaps that's why she looks so serene and clear-eyed when she talks about the gruesome way he died--gunned down by Palestinians early one morning while he was at work. In her little house in the Jewish settlement of Itamar, with the Biblical landscape stretching all around her, Zar says she doesn't know exactly what the next world looks like, but she knows that it's good, and that her husband has a ...

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