Suicide: Instant Ticket To Hell?

Alright, so I was viewing the heaven/hell thread about Hitler and Gandhi and it reminded me of this long discussion I had with my boyfriend about what happens when you commit suicide because my brother mumbled something about being dead/killing himself that was very close to a threat for suicide.

I made a comment that I hoped he wouldn't and I was very depressed about it, and I said that if he did make such a horrible choice I hoped to see him many years from now when I passed away. My boyfriend said he hoped I WOULD NOT see him when I passed away because I was too good of a person to go to hell.

So, my brother should go to hell even though he believes in God and is a single parent, taking care of two of his three kids with a little help from me here and there because he couldn't handle life's pressures? No matter what religion you are, even if you're atheist or agnostic, do you believe suicide should be an instant ticket to hell if God really does exist?

Despite how much I love my brother my boyfriend made a valid point out to me. If you kill somebody and you're a murderer, you have time to realize what you did was wrong and to ask for forgiveness from God. However, if you commit suicide, the last thing you did in your life was commit a sin and you didn't have the time to regret it or ask for forgiveness, or do any good in your life to make up for it. So I believe my brother would have gone to hell, and I'm glad he did not commit suicide because I plan on visiting him in heaven.

I don't believe you go to hell for it because it was the ultimate insult to God to take away the very life he gave you. If it was such an insult then that would mean that a murderer or serial killer would go straight to hell to for taking away life that he granted others. I believe you go to hell for it if in the last few seconds of your life you don't regret or beg for forgiveness.

 

From the most objective point of view possible-- which isn't much since suicide is something you can barely consider as rational-- the person is making some form of choice or acknowledgment regarding their life and makes suicide an outcome. The real issue is how their perspective at the moment is simply perverted and in the moment, which is why suicide is more often than not a "spur of the moment" action.

Some would consider that a person experiencing suicidal thoughts is experiencing their own personal hell as well, and that essentially taking one's own life puts an end to the torment. Like anything involving morality, religion tends to throw a pile of mythos into the fray in an attempt to deter people and make them think twice about where they'll go or what will happen after the fact. In my opinion I think it's selfish to view from the perspective of the fate of a person's "soul". Instead more emphasis should be placed not only on the individual's value as a person while they are living, but on their relationships and the roles they play in the lives of others. We're an interconnected species, and no act goes without rippling in the social systems we surround ourselves in; we're parts of a dynamic whole where both the individual and his/her ties are important.

 

Well, I see both in my own perspective and as well as the christian way. (since I'm christian) And I do believe that people who commit suicide should go to hell. Or at least I believe the fact that God will condemn them. But I would never ask any1 to kill themselves...

I hope ur bro feels better soon...

 

I'm not a religious person at all and can definitely be described as Agnostic or borderline Atheist.

But, knowing the concepts of Christianity and heaven and hell, I would say, based on that, he would go to hell. The principles of this religion state that if you commit a sin and do not ask for forgiveness, you go to hell, which is, simply, what you would do if you were committing suicide. Even if you were good all of your life, that one major sin causes you to be unable to reach heaven.

So, if you do believe in heaven and hell and god, it would make sense that he would go to hell. I don't think this is necessarily fair and see lots of flaws in this, which is why I do not believe in it.

So many unfair and unreasonable ideas such as this are behind religion that I find it near impossible to believe in it at all.

So based on the belief system, yes, it would be an instant ticket to hell.

But that is why I don't believe in it.
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Well, I have always heard at the end of your life that you will be brought infront of God, or Jesus, and if you ask them for forgivness, then you will be forgaven, but if you say you do not want to be forgiven, or you don't "belive" then you go to hell.

 

I do not really believe in the concept of Heaven or Hell, so I cannot really say but to believe that people make all sorts of mistakes with their lives and deaths. Each person is responsible for what they do here, but after that, it becomes a debate on what happens.

People commit suicide for a variety of reasons and it is a very touchy subject. If you are old, nothing is there, no one cares anymore etc and you are alone, or stuck in some home, I can't say I blame the person for wanting to end it. If someone is in serious agony from a debilitating disease or what not and there is no cure and all, maybe that person wants to end it so that the family isn't stuck with some ginormous bill and actually can do funeral rites for the person and still have some money left over. The person knows he/she is going to die any way, so eh, I don't know if I would not opt for the same choice in such a situation. Some people commit suicide for lamer reasons, and I have friends who have done such and it saddens me. However, I suppose I prefer to think that the person made the choice and well, as tragic as it is, they were obviously suffering and not able to find a reason to live so why does God have to give a crap so much about their choice? It is disturbing to hear someone at a funeral say that the person committed suicide so he/she is going to Hell. It's one of the reasons I stopped believing in Christianity.

 

Well I think it's up to the person for whether they even believe hell exists or not.

I for one, don't. So for me, suicide would be no different than dying of age. Except it's a forceful exit from my consciousness/awareness of existence.

 

according to my religious friends, it is. i guess it's a SUPER selfish sin becuz you dont' think about the ppl who will be affected by your death. you just do it cuz you can take what's going on. i guess that's the reasoning behind it? and killing yourself is bad all together anyways, even if you have ppl who care about you or not

 

Suicide is a result of social cohesion, and saying that you go to hell because you commit suicide is a totally ethnocentric viewpoint. Emile Durkheim, back when sociology was still new, did a study on suicide. He noticed that in Europe, suicide came from being an anomie, an outsider. From low social cohesion came depression, and often times suicide. In Protestant Europe, because in Roman Catholic countries there was a level of high social cohesion, there was a high rate of suicide and it was believed that you go to hell. However, for Durkheim to prove his point, he went to Asia to study. His theory was 100% wrong. In asian countries, killing yourself was a very high honor. The Japanese samurai commited huri kuri as a final act of selflessness. Giving your life for the betterment of the greater good was seen as correct, and in no way would send you to [the japanese equivalent of] hell. This was seen in many Asian countries with high social cohesion.

So in summation, though I am religious, I do not believe that he will go to hell for suicide. I dont think anyone on this planet can know. Two totally different cultures say two different things. If you were living in in a different culture, the answer may be different.

 

I believe you mean "hara kiri" which I believe roughly translate to "cutting of the belly". Unfortunately the findings on this are taken out of context. Hara kiri was used when one had been dishonoured or more often dishonoured their feudal lord with failure. They were granted what little of their honour remained by taking their own life.

To also be more specific, one of the contributing factors that increases suicide rates is lack of social cohesion. In Asian countries the suicide rates are much lower than those of North America, because more emphasis is placed on the family, the community, the society as a whole. The culture is one of collectivist roots and individual acts are often discouraged especially if they will bring dishonour to the family.

 

I won't try to repeat everything White_Rook said, but you misunderstand the point of Hara Kiri--or more formally called Seppuku. This ritual--which is sourly outdated and obviously very very rarely practiced anymore--was performed only AFTER a dishonourable act was committed. Seppuku was a way for a person to reclaim his honour for committing a dishonourable deed. Honour was important enough to be equated with the value of a person's life. Killing yourself for the sake of killing yourself was never condoned as a 'high honor' in Japanese history. And you never became a 'holier' person for doing so. Seppuku, while meant to 'redeem' yourself, was looked upon more as a disappointment and an unfortunate turn of events. No one cheered when people committed seppuku, and no one who committed seppuku was praised as an honourable person after his passing or called a hero by any means.

If anything, seppuku was a punishment for those who dishonoured their Samurai code, and it was the *only* way to restore one's honour. Committing seppuku was meant to deter people from acting dishonourably.

 

Confused those two words, seppoku and hari kari (sp.)

However, it comes from high social cohesion. Some people are so dedicated to a group, that when they fail, they commit suicide to safe face and scrounge up whatever honor they have left.

 

I asked a priest, he said the church passes suicide as a sickness, you can't help it, its not a sin anymore.

 

Committing suicide to 'scrounge up whatever honor they have left' is an individualistic idea. They do things for themselves, and committing suicide for this reason would reflect someone with an individualistic attitude.

Asian countries are more a collectivist-society by culture, and is why they have high social cohesion. I think you might be confusing yourself of the definition or how it affects human behaviour, because high social cohesion would mean people would be more interconnected with the people around them, and more importantly, they better understand that other people play important roles in their lives. People with this kind of thinking would be less prone to committing suicide in this respect because they understand the role they play in other people's lives, and the roles other people play in theirs.

Collectivist-societies are more attached to the ideas that promote sharing responsibilities, promoting global harmony, and one of the more questionable merits of such a social philosophy: reduce individuality for the sake of unifying oneself with the group.

People like this, who understand how they affect other people's lives, and people who like to maintain global harmony would be more hesitant to commit suicide--since they would know the effects this would have on their social circle. Collectivists, I would imagine, would more readily approach people about their problems.

 

Hmm.. you mean sickness as in being related to depression and other mental illnesses?

 

I dont believe you should go to hell for comiting suicide i mean.. its your life your choice really, but its not always the right one

Taking someone elses life however is ending someones elses life for the satisfaction of your own then well - Hell you go, unless you kill a murderer who was gonna kill a loved one, then even though its not the right thing to do.. it means you saved someone elses life so you should go to heaven for that

Death is confusing

 

The reason suicide was considered a sin is because it is taught that God is the only one to have control over when people live or die so killing yourself would be doing Gods job sort of =/. In days gone by people who killed themselves would not be buried in the churchyard, instead they would be buried at a crossroads so that when their soul rose out of their body they would become confused and lost and be doomed to wander the Earth.

Technically if God cared enough He wouldn't allow any human being to reach such a low that they even contemplated suicide so the problem would never arise. But hey that's just my viewpoint *contradictions*

 

Hmmmm, I do believe God cares.. but if everyone who causes suicide goes to hell, then theres more going there than heaven now-a-days. No I belive its what you do before you die that matters

 

Yes,you do go to hell if you commit suicide,because its not your choice when you die so its a sin to kill yourself and since you just died you go to hell.Some of you Say "Well if God is so merciful why does he send poeople to hell at all?".Because hes not Barney,Barney is a completely happy guy you wouldn't do anything to hurt someone,God,on the other hand,Is not.Now your thinking "oh so hes a mean person who wants to make everyone suffer" No,he gives us justice.We messed up,we commited sins,we go to hell.Its not Gods fault were so bad,he gave us free will.Now your thinking "well why doesn't he just make everyone good and take away free will?" well i think we would all agree free will is a heck of a lot better than God controlling us making us be good all the time. In short,we go to hell when we commit suicide because we sinned and its not up to us when we die.

Just because something becomes "popular"so that a lot of people do it,that doesn't make it not a sin,or else there would be no sins.And i hope your not talking about the Catholic church because they definently know suicide is wrong.

 

I don't really believe in hell. And if it did exist, what is to say that God will pity anyone who has commited murder? Why should he?! :'{

As far as suicide goes, it's just plain selfish... and that should be reason enough not to do it.