Dying for Heaven: Holy Pleasure and Suicide Bombers―Why the Best Qualities of Religion Are Also Its Most Dangerous - Hardcover

Glucklich, Ariel

3.19

16 ratings by Goodreads

9780061430817: Dying for Heaven: Holy Pleasure and Suicide Bombers―Why the Best Qualities of Religion Are Also Its Most Dangerous

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061430811 ISBN 13: 9780061430817

Publisher: HarperOne, 2009

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

In Dying for Heaven, Georgetown scholar and advisor to the defense community Ariel Glucklich explains the religious motivation of terrorism. This provocative work of political science argues that the very best qualities of religion—its ability to make people feel good and bring them together—are in fact its most dangerous. Glucklich, author of Sacred Pain and Climbing Chamundi Hill, offers a new understanding of religion and provides a vision for preventing further religiously-inspired violence.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

Why do terrorists do what they do? Not only are religiously motivated terrorists willing to self-destruct to achieve their goals, but neither threats nor incentives consistently prevent their devastating acts. Compounding this is the fact that soon extremist nations and terrorist groups in the Middle East and Asia will have nuclear weapons and may be driven by religion to use them. Is nuclear terror inevitable or can it be prevented?

Ariel Glucklich, Georgetown professor of religion and advisor to the U.S. defense community, reveals the fallacy of our country's three major assumptions about the motivations that lie behind terrorism:

that religious terrorists are acting out of hatred for us,
that belief in paradise is the chief factor in their willingness to die for their cause, and
that religious extremism is always irrational.

The astonishing reality Glucklich reveals is that these radicals

sincerely believe they are motivated by love,
actually are attempting to fight internal enemies or “heretics” within their own societies, and
desire fame and honor in the here and now, rather than a promised afterlife in heaven.

Dying for Heaven offers a groundbreaking theory of religion and religious destructiveness; the book examines the motivations fueling those who perpetrate religious violence around the globe—from Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists to violent Hindu nationalists, from Jewish-Zionist fundamentalists in Israel to leaders in Iran's race for nuclear weapons, and to Christian messianic defenders of American power. The continuing rise of religion as a global force and the proliferation of nuclear weapons create a unique challenge for policy advisors, who now must understand how far religious extremists will go toward nuclear annihilation. Dying for Heaven provides the key for understanding the religious drive to self-destruct and offers ways to combat the culture of suicide terrorism.

About the Author:

Ariel Glucklich is a professor at Georgetown University. He is the author ofSacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul, Climbing Chamundi Hill, and The Strides of Vishnu.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.