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

by Ariel Glucklich

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061430811
• ISBN13: 9780061430817
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Timely Book

This is a must-read for policy makers in the West. In the forever quest to down-play religion as a cause of problem in issues of global affairs, there is a tendency to ignore what animates most people on this earth...their faith in God. To over-simplify acts of terrorism (carried out in the name of God) as resultant due, only to socio-economic reasons or loss of cultural identity (in the post-colonial frame-work) will prove extremely tactless. However, more books have been written to either victimize or criminalize adherents of a faith who take up arms or lay down their lives in the name of God. This book provides an insight into the world of "heart" as that is where faith and God reside. And, in the name of faith or God, from the heart, emanates love for both acts, compassion and crime.

About evolution

Dying for Heaven is more than meets the eyes. I was surprised to see that it is essentially an evolutionary theory of religion. But unlike books on religion and evolution it is not about genetics but behavior. It explains how religion recruits human loyalty to the group and even engenders acts of self-sacrifice to the group and it does so by manipulating pleasures. I found the argument startling and the writing fresh. The front image and the chapters on suicide bombers catch the eye but are not essential to this book.