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Do we need religion to prevent suicide?

Yikes, what a subject, right? But what if religion was created to also prevent people from killing themselves for the fear of going to hell? Is this also why most pro-lifers are Christian?

FinchiMcQ 6 Apr 13
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33 comments

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5

Nope. We need compassion, lovingkindness, and a willingness to witness and be present for anothers' suffering for that.

Hurray .... and cake!

@Nickbeee icecream

@btroje Ice cream beer and cake in the same glass!

@Nickbeee oh hell yes accompanied by pizza in a cup

@btroje Woah - like a smoothie!! ??

@Nickbeee sure!

1

If you are suicidal likelyhood is it's for one of two reasons.

Neurology; in which case it can be managed but is wholly determined by the brain otherwise.

Really bad life experience and trauma mainly related to poverty and abuse!

If you want to stop suicide you have to stop poverty which would in turn help reduce violent and other forms of abusive bahaviours. Also build strong support networks for people with suicidal feelings ... Support is the single biggest factor and one the church has systematically failed on throughout history.

There is still a surprising amount of missconception, superstitiion and damaging control excercised by religous communities upon vulnerable people with mental health issues, suicide being the most acute end result.

The church categorically makes the sitution much worse in various ways; judgement .. lack of correct support networks.. confusion over possession and mental health .. all sorts of problems are created.

The church is not a good place for the mentally ill, they use prayer when therapy is called for and we all know Prayer doesnt work.

@misstuffy No matey!! too much superstition and old hangovers .. not that long ago people in West were "possessed" and I still think it's accepted in other more far flung regions of world. So although people may not directly believe those things possible there is still stigma. Really dark. It is the most unsupportive environment in a sense - not that it directly challenges but more that it can't identify, or isn't prepared to understand the reasons. Too easy to make false justification within it's framework too so if something doesn't "suit" someone they can unscience it with God can't they. It's like religious prejudices really. They used to hide the mentally ill away! There is support but it doesn't work .. If it did the male suicide rate wouldn't be through the roof and rising would it !! Prayer is delusion. Suicide.

@Nickbeee you are right!

0

More likely, religion is the direct or indirect cause of a great many suicides.

Deb57 Level 8 Apr 13, 2018
0

Some people do

0

Why people suicide -because thier is a issue a problem Using religion is supressing the problem
What we need to do is go to the root of the problem and resolve it and then there is no problem
What we are good at are always the short cut easiest way out supressing the issue and not eradicating the problem

Rosh Level 7 Apr 13, 2018
0

I don't believe we need religion, to prevent suicide. It is always said, when someone takes their life. I had a co-worker say one time, suicide comes in so many forms. I had to agree with him. We're used to people using a gun, or a knife to take their life. People will also hang thmeselves. I recently lost a friend to suicide and he hung himself.
Another form of sucide, is when people give up on their lives, and see no hope to live.
I am sure I can think of other ways people can commit suicide, with out the use of a gun, a knife or by hanging themselves.

0

Eh I doubt it helps that much. Ive been in and out of suicidal thoughts before and to be honest my atheism has done more to prevent it than religion would have. When you’re so depressed you’re contemplating suicide, you’re already living in the realest hell that exists. Once I lost the religious baggage I realize that life’s short enough on its own. This life is all we get and whether I’m enjoying it or not, I won’t throw it away.

3

Christianity made me want to commit suicide when I was deep in the church. I was stuck in a situation where no matter what avenue I chose to rectify it, according to the church, I would burn in hell. I had an epiphany that made me stop popping Xanax like it was candy and drinking myself into blacking out while hoping I wouldn't wake up. And here I am, not shackled to the confines of religion. Free and alive...so, religion does not keep people from committing suicide.

2

I always thought we would have less suicide without religion.

Seems to me, If you keep telling a depressed person that the afterlife is better, and there is no sadness or pain, they would want to check it out...

Let's not forget the 72 virgins...

Not that I would want 72 virgins, but I am sure someone would...

Really....

they have to be pretty stupid to think virgins are waiting to be defiled. First of all,you will have not body so you could not consummate sex. But I think these people who think that is waiting for them do not really think anything through. There is no logic to their theory of 72 willing virgins.

@terrygerry1 None of this afterlife stuff makes much sense, it is by nature illogical. No point in picking on the virgins. That's no more silly than sitting at the right hand of the lord.

@jeanhartely Religion on a whole is illogical, these people just don't make the effort to think things through and question because they have been brow beat not to.

0

I think religion increases suicide. A believer contemplating suicide is usually told to pray to God or some other deity for relief from the depression or solve the problem. If the depression doesn't end and problem not solved they are left with no recourse as where agnostics and atheists are better informed of proper ways to help the sufferer.

0

No. We just need clear thinking and good mental health care. Both, unfortunately, are in short supply, and so religion's pretense to make suicide a "sin", possibly even the unpardonable sin, may play a role, just as it plays a role apparently in helping restrain some people from pillaging and raping their way through life, via the threat of eternal perdition.

But one needs to be careful in suggesting that religion is literally needed to prevent harms. That's rather like someone living in, say, Naples, Italy, claimig that the mafia is needed so that the garbage gets collected. Just because the mafia has inserted itself into civic life in those parts of the world, and provides things that society and government fail to provide as a rationalization for the protection money it extorts, does not mean the mafia is literally needed to deliver public services.

2

I think lacking belief in an afterlife is a far more compelling reason not to kill yourself than thinking you’ll go to heaven.

1

There’s some truth to that. When Christianity was taking over the world, the idea of a better afterlife was added so that those in power could stay in power, and with the promise of a better afterlife, the slaves would heed their masters without uprising. However, with the promise of a better afterlife, slaves would opt out rather than suffer at the hands of the church. So they made suicide a sin so that they could continue to keep the slaves as long as they could.

As to why Christians are “pro-life,” they’re not. They just want you die on THEIR terms, not yours.

I love that last quote of yours. "As to why Christians are “pro-life,” they’re not. They just want you die on THEIR terms, not yours." it is soooooo true!

2

When Drukheim released his study on suicide, which also was the egining of the science of sociology, he showed that the more rigid the religion a person belonged to the higher the liklihood that they woudl commit suicide. To give you an idea Catholics were about three times as likely as the general population to commit suicide.

So, religion actually increases the li9klihood of suicide.

If you consider that religion is based on instillihngt guilt fear and shame, it is pretty obvious why they increase the risk of suicide.

Here is a link to Durkheim's study. [thoughtco.com]

All the more reason we should establish a town somewhere where reason rules our society and our schools. I for one am ready for a move!

0

Some people need religion for that but I think we need more people who care and can help intervene when someone is having problems. Supportive systems, groups should be more available also.

0

There is an excellent This American Life that discusses a palecular outcome to the Christian belief that suicide is unforgivable. Restricting people and limiting the ways they control their own destiny can have very undesirable outcomes

What do we actually control, if we are forced to cede control of our very existence to a governing body, like a church?

1

Pro life until the human leaves the birthing canal. After that, it’s either kill it or use it.

5

I wonder what the suicide rate was 3000 years ago

ThInk you probably just asked the most important question !

Next one is and what are we doing different.

@HazelRah Well they lived a bit longer than that and many lived into a ripe old age, the average age of death is skewed due to high infant mortality rates. only half survived the first year of life.

I doubt it was anywhere near what it is now.

5

Can I ask a crass question? While an undeniable tragedy to loved ones... why do we need to prevent suicide? There are seven billion people on this planet.

I get it if it’s a teen. Young people have less experience to fall back on and less perspective ... and are probably more emotional and subject to rash decisions

But if an adult is so profoundly unhappy with life, who am I to tell them things will get better?

Makes sense..

I agree. My sister killed herself. She had talked about it for many years. I have also decided that I, too, would probably commit suicide under certain circumstances. My sister was healthy but depressed. She was 79. She said she missed her husband. I know she did not think they would be reunited after death, she was just so lonely and wanted the "big Sleep."

Very pragmatic

@terrygerry1 That is how I feel, too. I am 74 and I hope to go on for a few more years, but when I have had enough I shall end my life. I think it is my right. I know a number of other old people who feel the same. When we have had enough, we should be able to end our lives without any fuss. It should be considered normal.

I really think it depends on the situation, someone with a terminal illness that's in pain should be allowed this as an out, it is the humane thing to do, and even more humane to make sure it is as painless as possible instead of a gun to the head out of desperation to get away from the pain and misery. Other situations I would say mental health professionals maybe able to help. There are so many folks who unfortunately take the family with them when they choose to commit suicide and that is tragic. The Indian Tech guy during the recession when they lost their home in CA killed his entire family, the lesbian couple in recent weeks also killed their entire family. it happens too often. Whats really tragic is when someone survives an attempt but after they jump or whatever realize they don't want to die after all and luckily they survive when many dont.

@CeliaVL It is normal in many countries and a few states here. Do your research and make sure you are living in a state that allows you this decision to end it with dignity.

@kozmic I should clarify my statement, in some states assisted suicide is legal for the terminally ill. You must have established residency and a physician gives you a lethal dose of a certain medication, don't ask me what that pill is as I do not know. I remember the young woman with cancer that wanted to go out before she got so bad she was and her family were suffering. She was 25 years old, the entire family got their chance to say goodbye and to remember her looking halfway healthy though they were aware of her true prognosis. She had I believe exhausted all reasonable avenues of treatment.

2

I would suggest that religion encourages suicide because there's always that thought that "there will be another life - another chance to get sh@t right". If people really understood the finality of death they might not be so quick to take that route.

But most religious people think there is a hell and that is what they are taught. That might prevent a suicide but I think most people who are so conflicted would do it anyway.

@terrygerry1 Hell in the western sense is a particularly Christian/Islamic concept, not shared by the vast majority of religious people.

@terrygerry1 There is a Hell, it is called Church and Religion!

1

I would bet more religious people commit suicide. Is there some place that might have statistics?

LGBTQ+ religious people definitely commit more suicide: [huffingtonpost.com]

6

We need more mental health education, funding and awareness. What we don't need is guilt, horror, fear.

0

If anything the idea of an all forgiving God combined with a paradisiacal afterlife probably makes suicide very attractive to religious people, and since Christianity is one of the few religions that actually makes suicide a damnable offence it is no wonder Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus etc are willing to sacrifice them selves for a cause on the promise of divine reward.

4

Why prevent it?

Suicide ought to be a right, the ultimate right, in fact.

8

I honestly believe religion creates suicides in many cases. Kids whose views are not accepted by parents or church are prone. I think we are better off without religion period.

Definitely !!!

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