HALO THERE! MAJORITY SAYS HEAVEN'S REAL By DAN KADISON
A large majority of Americans believes there's a heaven, a new poll has found.
Newsweek magazine surveyed 1,000 American adults, ages 18 and up, in July. Seventy-six percent said they believe in the existence of heaven.
The reason is because "it's threatening to one's entire self" to imagine one's own death, says Sherwin Nuland, author of "How We Die: Reflection in Life's Final Chapter."
"Even those of us who don't believe in one sneakingly wish there was one," the author told Newsweek.
More poll results concern why a person goes to heaven and what it will be like up there.
Three-fourths of those polled think that a person's actions determine whether they'll wind up in heaven.
Such speculation, however, doesn't go down well with every theologian.
"There's no specific teaching on where heaven is or what it is," Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft tells the mag. "The Bible doesn't give directions from downtown Cleveland."