For Friedrich Nietzsche, heaven was a place where "all the interesting people are missing." For Emily Dickinson, heaven was "so far of the Mind." For Belinda Carlisle, it was a place on earth. But for Lisa Miller, it's a feeling.
"The closest I can come to it is snuggling my daughter, early in the morning or late at night, and the perfection of that love," she tells iVillage. "Imagine that multiplied times -- even just two -- that would be better than anything I can imagine."
Miller, the religion editor at Newsweek, has written a book, Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife. In it, she discusses cultures' varying views of heaven and, as the title implies, why 81 percent of people polled continue to believe in it, even without a clear understanding of what heaven is.
Here, she talks to iVillage about what she hopes to achieve with her book, how to discuss the afterlife with kids and why we should believe in heaven.
