NationStates Jolt Archive

The one thing I dont comprehend about Christianity is that it states that killing yourself is a definate way of going to hell. Exactly why is that a sin? I mean if you consider yourself a failure in life and have nothing going for you and realize that if you continue to live it would ultimately be a waste of time then at that very low point in life what is so wrong about ending the pain, embarrassment, and misery right then and there? Your not hurting anyone else......Suicide as I see it is an easier and shorter way to get out of a shithole of a life but that doesnt mean that this person should go through even more suffering and god forbid eternal damnation just because of his awful circumstances which forced him/her to end their life. Any thoughts on this topic?

Well, in "de olden dayz", killing yourself would bring disrepute on thy family - so it would be casting a slur on your family. Plus, mostly, it would harm your family mentally.

If you're thinking of doing it, go and talk to the Samaritans!

Probably because only God can decide when you die or something like that.

Well, in "de olden dayz", killing yourself would bring disrepute on thy family - so it would be casting a slur on your family. Plus, mostly, it would harm your family mentally.

If you're thinking of doing it, go and talk to the Samaritans!


Samaritans...... what exactly is that?

Fairly simple really.
As has already been pointed out, it damages your family, but the religious reason for it is that you're breaking one of the Ten Commandments - you are taking a human life.
It was considered irrelevent that it was your life, you were still destroying God's gift.

Hope that helps.

Because God gave you your life and to throw it away as such is essentially a nice big slap in His face. As far as it being a mortal sin (one way ticket to Hell, no forgiveness) that is a predominately Catholic belief and I don't agree with it...although any sin is a one way ticket if you're not forgiven for it.

Oh, and a cheerful little note.

In the UK suicide used to be a capital sin. Way to go logic!

Although according to Church Law, a suicide could not be buried on Holy Ground.

The one thing I dont comprehend about Christianity is that it states that killing yourself is a definate way of going to hell. Exactly why is that a sin? I mean if you consider yourself a failure in life and have nothing going for you and realize that if you continue to live it would ultimately be a waste of time then at that very low point in life what is so wrong about ending the pain, embarrassment, and misery right then and there? Your not hurting anyone else......Suicide as I see it is an easier and shorter way to get out of a shithole of a life but that doesnt mean that this person should go through even more suffering and god forbid eternal damnation just because of his awful circumstances which forced him/her to end their life. Any thoughts on this topic?
To answer this, you have to understand what is meant by sin. A sin is not necessarily wrong by society's standards... but it is wrong by God's standard. A sin is simply going against God's will. In this light, suicide is a sin because it is rejecting the gift of life that God gave. In the Christians view, God gave us the gift of life and to throw it away by suicide is to sin against His will.

According to the Christians that I know, you can't decide when you are going to die (apparently that's only done by God - where is the free will god supposedly gave you in this situation is my question). To quote my grandmother, "God has a plan," so apparently if his plan involves you having a crap life than you have nothing to do but sit there and take it. Because if you choose to end the pain and suffering of your physical self, you are destroying the gift that god felt generous enough to give you (and DAMN it you should be GREATFUL!!).

Personally, if you want to kill yourself I'm not going to stop you, and neither should your faith because it is your life and if you can't handle it then Don't.

Because God gave you your life and to throw it away as such is essentially a nice big slap in His face. As far as it being a mortal sin (one way ticket to Hell, no forgiveness) that is a predominately Catholic belief and I don't agree with it...although any sin is a one way ticket if you're not forgiven for it.


Well if a person has a good life then I would understand the whole "trowing away his life" thing but for a person who has had a very bad life I dont think he/she is really throwing anything away at that point.

What I don't understand is why suicide is illegal. I can understand that it should void things like life insurance policies, but to make it illegal just seems stupid.

As far as it being a mortal sin (one way ticket to Hell, no forgiveness) that is a predominately Catholic belief


Just so you know, this is not just a Catholic belief, my Baptist Christain family (personally Athiest) believes suicide to be a "One way ticket to Hell," as does the major church under which their church presides.

Very simply, it is considered murder. Self-murder, granted, but murder. One of the ten commandments is "Thou shalt not kill/murder" (depending on your translation).

The taboo against suicide is primarily a Western Christian thing. In medieval Japan, for instance, suicide was not only not a sin, it was the proper and honourable thing to do when faced with great disgrace.

Well if a person has a good life then I would understand the whole "trowing away his life" thing but for a person who has had a very bad life I dont think he/she is really throwing anything away at that point.

Things can go from horrible to wonderful in a hurry. I've spent my days as a suicidal mess, and everything has changed since then. What kind of life someone had in the past is irrelevant. Maybe they can't fix everything that went wrong but it's never too late to try again.

According to the Christians that I know, you can't decide when you are going to die (apparently that's only done by God - where is the free will god supposedly gave you in this situation is my question). To quote my grandmother, "God has a plan," so apparently if his plan involves you having a crap life than you have nothing to do but sit there and take it. Because if you choose to end the pain and suffering of your physical self, you are destroying the gift that god felt generous enough to give you (and DAMN it you should be GREATFUL!!).

Personally, if you want to kill yourself I'm not going to stop you, and neither should your faith because it is your life and if you can't handle it then Don't.

god gave man freewill,hence god cant know the future or have a plan(well i guess if his plan is hey let me give mortals freewill and let them runamouk.).

Just so you know, this is not just a Catholic belief, my Baptist Christain family (personally Athiest) believes suicide to be a "One way ticket to Hell," as does the major church under which their church presides.

This I know, that belief is widespread but has seemed, in my experience, to be predominately Catholic, although denomination has little to do with it. Your Baptist family believes in it, but no one in my Baptist church does.

Yeah, but I'm not sure that you automatically go to hell for killing yourself. If we went to hell just for having committed a sin that we hadn't 'repented' for, then 99.9% of people would go there when they die. The Bible says somewhere that the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy, and that's to deny God all together. So, in theory, if you've every accepted Him at some point then you won't go to hell at all. I think.

god gave man freewill,hence god cant know the future or have a plan(well i guess if his plan is hey let me give mortals freewill and let them runamouk.).

Yeah that whole free will thing was going pretty well till that stupid devil guy came and said "oh this is okay this is okay go ahead He won't mind." Big jerkface.

Yeah, but I'm not sure that you automatically go to hell for killing yourself. If we went to hell just for having committed a sin that we hadn't 'repented' for, then 99.9% of people would go there when they die. The Bible says somewhere that the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy, and that's to deny God all together. So, in theory, if you've every accepted Him at some point then you won't go to hell at all. I think.

Salvation covers past, present, and future sins. Sorry I don't have a verse quote for that but I'll try to get one

First off, the Church (Catholic Church) has stated that while suicide is a major sin for a variety of reasons, it is still a forgivable sin, and thus a suicide can still get in to heaven. Extenuating circumstances like mental illness, or if you had vital information in a war and killed yourself so as not to be captured, are easily forgiven by God, or so teaches the Church.

My personal take on why it is wrong includes the "gift from God" argument, but also that it is a terrible waste. Your life is not only from God. Your parents/guardians, teachers, friends, and even random people on the street have invested their knowledge, trust, and love in you. Therefore, killing yourself makes years of effort on the part of other people absolutely worthless. So if you think about it realistically, our lives are NOT our own, and this is how it should be.

Equally important is the value of every human life. Even if your life seems like crap, not only is there someone out there who has it worse, but there is still a chance for your own life to get better. I've hit low points where suicide seemed like it was a good idea, but I kept reminding myself that life was going to get better if I just kept pushing ahead. And even if nothing seems to change, or even to get worse, there are still ways to at least be useful to the other couple billion people in the world.

So, yeah. Suicide is mostly selfish.

when one commits suicide he is basically telling God "your gift sucks, let me have the good part NOW"

and you typically don't tell a deity that.

Well, think back to when the bible was written. Let's face it, like everybody's life sucked. The idea was that if you let a nice, pious life helping those less fortunate and staying away from sin, then you would be rewarded with a perfect eternal afterlife.

So suicide'd be like skippin right to desert without eatin yo veggies amirite?

when one commits suicide he is basically telling God "your gift sucks, let me have the good part NOW"

and you typically don't tell a deity that.

Hah! Yeah, especially THAT diety!

"suicide is the man's way saying to god: you can't fire me, I'm resign".
and I think that if some one want suicide he had bigger problems than:"oh no, I will be a sinner, and god would kill me for that".

You can repent for most sins.

You can't repent for committing suicide... you're dead.

when one commits suicide he is basically telling God "your gift sucks, let me have the good part NOW"

and you typically don't tell a deity that.

And what about the children born in poor 3rd world areas(Palastine, Cambodia, the Congo, Mexico) is being born into this world really such a "gift" ?

I think under Christianity God only lets you into heaven if you have suffered horribly in this life. (the meek shall inherit the earth/ it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle).
If you can't endure a little suffering and kill yourself you aren't worthy of heavenly bliss.

Your best bet is to get leprosy or try to get eaten by cannibals teaching the Word of God or something and make sure your life sucks because then you will definitely get into heaven.

You can repent for most sins.

You can't repent for committing suicide... you're dead.
Exactly. Sucicide is killing, which breaks one of the commandments, and you can't repent for committing suicide. You could try, but asking for forgiveness before the act is acknowledging that it's not the right thing to do, and then if you go and do it anyways it's like saying "I don't care about your ideas of right and wrong."

Because it's a practice that is destructive to society....if everyone committed suicide, there wouldn't be anyone left. (Not to mention the various moral and human aspects, but we'll save those for another day.)

I think that a person, and only that person has the right to choose whether they live or die.

Not that I would encourage suicide... it's a terrible thing and the Samaritans are heroes.

The one thing I dont comprehend about Christianity is that it states that killing yourself is a definate way of going to hell. Exactly why is that a sin? I mean if you consider yourself a failure in life and have nothing going for you and realize that if you continue to live it would ultimately be a waste of time then at that very low point in life what is so wrong about ending the pain, embarrassment, and misery right then and there? Your not hurting anyone else......Suicide as I see it is an easier and shorter way to get out of a shithole of a life but that doesnt mean that this person should go through even more suffering and god forbid eternal damnation just because of his awful circumstances which forced him/her to end their life. Any thoughts on this topic?
because, according to Christianity, your body doesn't belong to you. in fact, you don't belong to you. you are God's property. you do not have the right to choose what happens to your body, and you do not have power over your life.

Look suicide isn't something that should be taken lightly. Trust me, i've alomost been there several times recently. Some really bad stuff happened and I thought it was the only way out, I didn't want to live anymore, what was the point? But It was after I slit my wrists and my grandmother saw me, that i realised the affect that me killing myslef would have on others. I don't see why it's a sin, it should be a personal choice, not that I would ever encourage it, but be warned. Think of the poeple that you love and care about before you decideto take your own life...

Originally Posted by Bottle
you do not have the right to choose what happens to your body, and you do not have power over your life.
The first three sentences in your post are essentially correct in that Christians (as well as Muslims and followers of other religions) believe that since God created everything, everything is pretty much God's property.

However, your last sentence, quoted above, is non-factual. It is recognized by almost all religions that a person has power over her/his life (in the literal sense), and while many would not call it a "right," they recognize that a person can choose what happens to his/her body.

Just because we can do something, doesn't make it right. As I posted earlier in the thread, even if you don't believe in an higher power that wants you to make use of its gift of life, suicide is still a waste. So many people have made an "investment" in you that to kill yourself makes any effort they have made, no matter how small, absolutely worthless.

Whether you realize it or not, suicide will harm others. Human beings are notoriously short-sighted (anyone remember the Y2K Problem?), so it should not come as a surprise to anyone that a person killing him/herself harms another person who is very much alive.

You saying that it didn't hurt anyone else isn't exactly true. It would hurt your friends and family; and what about the children you were supposed to have? God has a plan and killing yourself isn't part of it. He created you and knows when and how you will leave this world. Just because you're going through some difficult times doesn't mean you should run away from them. God doesn't give you a trial that you don't have the strength to go through. Killing yourself effects alot more than what you might think. If you look down the line of after killing yourself you will see who and what it will effect.