PARADISE

in 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, Islam) 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 (Islam, 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, Islam views paradise as a pleasure garden in which the blessed experience the greatest sensual and spiritual happiness.