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Why are most religions against suicide?

C

cowardescent

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Excluding the Abrahamic ones (which AFAIK, Islam is the only one to forbid suicide). Religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism tend to take a dim view of suicide? Why is that?
 
Because of the law of karma. Suicide is not a way out since you will come back with the same karma and set behind. Instead they offer a way to end your suffering through meditation to achieve awakening. Suicide only sets one back the start instead of solving their problems. There is no escape from consciousness,
 
Well, you only live once ! 💙

What else can they say, more for the offerings.
 
Are buddhists against suicide? Seems like they like setting themselves on fire...

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Karamazov said:
Christianity most definitely forbids suicide for the reason that life is a gift and is not really ours to begin with.
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But I thought that Christianity forbade suicide when a Roman Emperor was trying to curb suicide cults 2000+ years ago.

And the concept really doesn't make sense. How can life be a gift but one you can't refuse? If that's the case, then it's an imposition not a gift. I can return a gift in any other circumstance.
 
It can only be an imposition if you think you know more than God. That’s the idea anyway. If God exists then any gift he gives us must be good regardless of how it seems to our limited understanding.
 
My belief is , first of all you have to believe in heaven and hell or else I woulda probably offed myself by now if I didn’t . I look at it like maybe all the pain and suffering I did and am currently going thru is my hell . And if that’s the case who am I to take control and end it . It’s more complex then that but that more or less how I think of it .
 
TripSitterNZ said:
Because of the law of karma. Suicide is not a way out since you will come back with the same karma and set behind..........Suicide only sets one back the start instead of solving their problems. There is no escape from consciousness,
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This!

My stance upon it is this, we are all here this time around as we didn't learn whatever lesson(s) we should have the last time around in whatever form we came as (human, dog, cow etc....)
To kill yourself really isn't the way out, in this life we have certain things we have to learn to gain "wisdom" & these lessons can be simple such as what is it to be poor or to be rich etc. If you cut your life short before it is time to go you gotta come back all over again & learn things again. I used to be for suicide but now I'm firmly against it.
 
one less soldier

never use contraception ever either- have 12 babies for allah/yaweh/jesus.

your religion needs YOU!
 
Many reasons.

It's a rejection of the gift of life that God gave you.
Your life is God's to end, not yours.
It's the ultimate expression of Satan winning, or whatever religions call the extreme egoic, tempting force. It is ego getting out of control. In other words, suicidiality and the act of suicide are symbolic of the ungodly passions.
It is a betrayal of life duties and responsibilities: to family, community, the church, the nation, to God.
In religions that are against violence, suicide is a violent act. It's no different than murdering someone, you're just murdering yourself instead. It violates "Thou Shall Not Kill".

I do agree with what was said above too... that it represents individual agency within institutions that try to control the masses. Governments generally outlaw suicide because it creates agency for intervention. It enables people to be rescued and have more resources become available if they fail in their attempt. I do think though, originally, it's about control. Before the Magna Carta, the Sovereigns of nations ruled and basically owned their citizens. People were property of the State, especially the serfs. So if you kill yourself, you're basically spitting in the face of your owners, which is not allowed.

Spiritually, I see why suicide should mostly be avoided... and there may be a tiny seed of that genuine value in religion. On the whole though, I think it's mostly about guilt-tripping people into staying alive so that they can be exploited by people in power. Early Christians had suicide cults and it was perfectly OK back then to martyr yourself if it meant standing up to the decadence and debauchery of Greek society, but then the script flipped when Christianity took power and wanted their faith to proliferate.

I think the topic of suicide is taboo in general because people are terrified of facing the truth of existentialism that underlies all of our piddly human lives. The suicidal people are the ones actually staring the void in the face while everyone else just wants to merrily go along.
 
Burnt Offerings said:
All of the major monotheistic religions forbid suicide.

It's because suicide is the ultimate expression of individual agency, which religions are always trying to control/curtail.
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jose ribas da silva said:
without people there is no money for the churches
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These are the real answers.

It's like that old joke "suicide is illegal because it's a crime to damage state property."

The same goes for religion, as religion strives to control your life even more than the state, and it can't do that if you're dead.
 
there is a certain level of harm reduction since at one point somebody asked about suicide to a priest and then a history was told, of course, condemning it. Other religions, for example, spiritism state that the suicidal's soul will suffer in other spiritual plane. If one hanged oneself, then one's soul will be suffering from choking symptoms in the "purgatory", interpretations in this line.
 
Honestly, even if the intentions are good, it is simply not an effective method of discouraging suicide to say "god will be angry at you."

I remember when I was like 14 and feeling suicidal, I googled something about methods, and this page came up saying "don't commit suicide because you will go to hell." Even as a young teenager I rolled my eyes and left the site. No way is that working on any adult who is genuinely suicidal.
 
Can a religion forbid suicide? Religions are maintained by people.

They do not control what happens afterward. But things could get worse, huh
 
Probably because you think your problems are inescapable and that, in truth, your problems are only temporal -- not eternal.
 
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