Most people say they believe in an afterlife. Over the centuries artists, poets and philosophers have struggled to capture celestial splendor in words and images.

It seems that we are all anxious to believe in heaven as a blissful resting place, a kind of reward for all our earthly labors — yet few of us know much about it — and it’s clear that people have questions. Books dealing with the subject like “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “Left Behind” are perennial bestsellers.

So why is it that we are so interested in what happens after we die? Is heaven a particularly Western obsession? And what are the important differences between how other faiths understand the afterlife? Exploring life after death, human notions of immortality.

Guests:

Carol Zaleski, Professor of Religion at Smith College and author of “The Book of Heaven”

Jana Riess, Religion Book Review Editor for Publishers Weekly.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” It is a huge undertaking and few have the inclination to try. Doctor Paul Farmer, however, is an exception. For years, he’s been traveling the world, caring for the sick, and advocating for the poor: in Peru, in Mexico, in Russia, in Haiti, and most recently, in Rwanda.

Farmer’s work with those who are often forgotten has earned him the reputation of being something of a modern-day saint. Farmer dismisses such praise — he says he would be nothing without his patients, and that he simply doesn’t want to live in a world where the poor are allowed to die from TB and AIDS, while the wealthy expect access to the latest treatments. When the poor suffer, he says, so does everyone else. We talk about medicine, and morality with Doctor Paul Farmer.

Guests:

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, attending physician in the Division of Infectious Disease at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and medical co-director of the Clinique Bon Sauveur, a charity hospital in rural Haiti.

Vittorio Storaro’s innovations in cinematography have forever changed film. He is the photographer behind such classic films as Last Tango in Paris, Apocalypse Now, Reds and The Last Emperor.

Storaro describes his distinctive style as writing with light and shadow; conveying emotions and symbolism through the use of color. He has taught generations of film-makers to compose cinematic images with a painter’s eye.

He won three Oscars but was first celebrated internationally for his partnership with Bernardo Bertolucci. His films range from drama to documentary, tv mini series to IMAX movies.

Storaro believes that cinematographers are co-authors of the films they help create, and should push to be recognized as artists rather than as technicians. Cinematography out of shadows with Vittorio Storaro.

Guests:

Vittorio Storaro, Italian cinematographer.

John Bolton, has been a strong backer of the war in Iraq and critic of most things multilateral. Now, he is President Bush’s pick for U.N. ambassador.

Bolton is no fan of the U.N. He once said that America should be the only permanent member of the Security Council. Critics say he’s the wrong man the job. But his supporters say that he has a tough-talking, get-things-done approach that makes him precisely the man needed to represent the U.S. The U.N. needs tough love, they say, and Bolton is the man to deliver it.

As the Senate gears up to debate his nomination, we will hear from both sides, and talk about the kind of medicine the U.N. needs, and what kind of signal John Bolton would send as Ambassador.

Guests:

Sonni Efron, Diplomatic Correspondent for The Los Angeles Times

Frank Gaffney Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy

Lord David Hannay, Former British Ambassador to the United Nations from 1990 to 1995

Casper Weinberger, Former U.S. Defense Secretary

Don Kraus, executive vice president of Citizens for Global Solutions;

Jonathan Safran Foer burst onto the literary scene with his celebrated debut novel “Everything Is Illuminated.” It is a fictional tale about his own search for the Ukrainian woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis.

For his second novel, Foer has fixed his literary sights on the terrible events of 9/11. The book is called “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” It is the tale of nine-year-old Oskar Schell, who sets off on a journey across New York City in search of a lock that will fit a key that he found in his father’s closet. He hopes it will also unlock details of his father’s death in the twin towers.

As the story unfolds, it draws in past tragedies like the firebombing of Dresden, in an attempt to reconnect a family with too many secrets. A conversation about memory, meaning and writing 9/11 with Jonathan Safran Foer.

Guests:

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”;

Today, Viktor Yushchenko addresses the U.S. Congress, in part to thank the American people for supporting democracy in Ukraine. Earlier this week, President Bush hailed Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” as an example for other countries where people are yearning for freedom. But some are warning that Ukraine marks a special case and only succeeded because the push for democracy came from the grassroots not from the outside.

This week, many are saying that Kyrgyzstan’s own revolution may have been nothing more than a coup, and that the U.S. should think twice before it puts its money toward supporting fledgling political movements for democracy. Creating democracy from the inside or outside.

Guests:

Thomas Carothers, democratization expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Adrian Karantnycky, senior scholar at Freedom House, part of the delegation meeting with Viktor Yushchenko

Edil Baisalov, Chairman of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society in Kyrgistan, a non-partisan group funded in part by USAID and the US State Department.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting in Iraq yesterday as troops battled insurgents east of Baghdad. The recent deaths put U.S. fatalities at over 1,500. The ongoing violence continues to fuel questions about how long U.S. soldiers should stay in that country, and what would happen if they left.

Ever since American forces took Baghdad two years ago, people at dinner tables and in coffee shops have been talking about just how long the troops should stay there. Perhaps, no one is better qualified to have this debate than the soldiers themselves.

National Guardsman Paul Rieckhoff and Marine Corporal Mike Hoffman served in Iraq. Their experiences reflect many shades of emotions Americans feel as they contemplate a timetable for the troops still there. Time to stay or time to leave?

Guests:

Paul Rieckhoff, First Lieutenant in the Army National Guard and founder of Operation Truth

Mike Hoffman, Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps artillery battery, Romeo 5th Battalion 10th Marines and founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War

Ed Wong, reporter for The New York Times based in Baghdad

Last week, many Republicans got a shock with their morning coffee. There was the pixilated bust of Tom Delay. Dead center on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, along with the words, “Smells like Beltway.”

The House Majority leader is a Texas Congressman who earned the nickname “the Hammer” for his habit of coming down hard on anything or anyone that gets in the way of his Conservative Republican principles.

The editorial was a surprise. It was the first public expression of what some say is a growing private sentiment among Republicans — that Tom Delay’s ethical troubles are hurting the party and giving Democrats a new political lease on life. Delay supporters brush off such criticism saying a good fight will only strengthen their man. So will the hammer come down?

Guests:

Lou Dubose, author of “The Hammer: God, Money and the Rise of the Republican Congress”

Whit Ayres, Republican pollster

Morton Blackwell, conservative Republican activist

and TBA.

In his 90th year the Nobel Prize winning physicist Charles Townes has won another academic honor — the Templeton prize. But this one does not take stock of his equations. Instead it rewards progress in the discovery of spiritual realities.

What does it mean for a scientist to receive a religious prize? In recent years the classroom arguments over evolution and creation have divided communities on this subject throughout America. But Townes says there are places where religion and science converge. He sees harmony in science’s attempt to understand the order of the universe and in religion’s quest to understand its purpose and meaning.

Alongside his own work in helping invent the laser, Townes has written and spoken about science and religion for more than 40 years now. Call it a quest for common ground.

Guests:

Dr. Charles Townes, Nobel prize winning physicist and recent winner of the Templeton Prize.

Today, Catholics and others from all over the world are mourning the death of Pope John Paul II. The man who led the church for 26 years died Saturday evening after years of illness. His body now lies in state in St. Peter’s Square where more than a million people — from world leaders to the humblest of pilgrims — are expected to gather to pay their respects.

Today on the Connection we reflect on the life of John Paul II. His Papacy was not without controversy. Here in the United States, he will be remembered both as a tireless defender of human rights, and as a deeply conservative thinker whose opinions on social issues and whose failure to address the clergy sexual abuse scandal left many American Catholics feeling estranged from their Church.

Guests:

Lisa Sowle Cahill, Professor of Theology at Boston College

Lawrence Cunningham, Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame

Jeff Israely, Rome Bureau Chief for Time Magazine

and Father Renato Lafranchi, with the Comboni Missionaries in San Paolo, Brazil.