- Paradise
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/par"euh duys', -duyz'/, n.a town in N California. 22,571.
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▪ religionin religion, a place of exceptional happiness and delight. The term paradise is often used as a synonym for the Garden of Eden before the expulsion of Adam and Eve. An earthly paradise is often conceived of as existing in a time when heaven and earth were very close together or actually touching, and when humans and gods had free and happy association. Many religions also include the notion of a fuller life beyond the grave, a land in which there will be an absence of suffering and a complete satisfaction of bodily desires. Accounts of a primordial earthly paradise in the higher religions range from that of a garden of life (Judaism, Christianity, Islām) to that of a golden age of human society at the beginning of each cycle of human existence (Buddhism, Hinduism). A final state of bliss is variously conceived of as a heavenly afterlife (Islām, Christianity), union with the divine (Hinduism), or an eternal condition of peace and changelessness (Buddhism).In Christianity, paradise is pictured as a place of rest and refreshment in which the righteous dead enjoy the glorious presence of God. In its view of the heavenly afterlife, Islām views paradise as a pleasure garden in which the blessed experience the greatest sensual and spiritual happiness.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
