Whether or not they believed they would be rewarded in paradise I doubt that that belief could be so deeply ingrained that they did not perceive at some level their deaths, particularly deaths of that violent nature, to be dangerous. Of course, I don't know that. I could be wrong. But no-one knows. As I said, I don't see courage as connected with virtue so to me any act in which the protagonist suppresses significant fear for themselves and presses on to their objective is courageous. I tend to see the "evil therefore cowardly" theory a lot and I don't agree with it, so I threw out my own theory. The only thing I ask of anyone is that they read and think carefully about what I say. Pixies is usually good in this regard, which is a big reason I still post here.

Hey look, I went off track. Go me

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I want to know everything
I want to be everywhere
I want to fuck everyone in the world
I want to do something that matters