Why would God send someone to hell over suicide?
- Thread starter Jayson
- Start date
I'm not the right one to ask, I guess, because even though I'm religious (Presbyterian), I don't believe suicide in and of itself automatically sends you to hell. I believe that your perception that all religions do so, Jayson, is inaccurate. I've been to Christian funerals for suicides, and the assumption was that heaven was at least a possibility.
I do believe it's a sin...but if all of us who sinned went to hell, heaven would be one loooooooonely place.
Besides, I don't believe God "sends" anybody to hell. I believe those who go to hell, (assuming some do - there are such things as Christian Universalists, who don't believe in damnation), have chosen it. By that, I don't mean that they said to themselves, "Hey, I have my choice of eternal bliss or eternal suffering and I choose eternal suffering." What I mean is, they have a choice between God and themselves, and they picked themselves.
And may I just say that there's more to suicide than just "being sad"? You can be sad, horribly terribly unbelievably sad, and still say to yourself, "I have a responsibility to those who love me so I will not do this thing that will haunt them the rest of their lives." And maybe that's the real sin of suicide (at least of suicides that involve someone who isn't definitely mentally ill): Forgetting how it will affect other people.
I do believe it's a sin...but if all of us who sinned went to hell, heaven would be one loooooooonely place.
Besides, I don't believe God "sends" anybody to hell. I believe those who go to hell, (assuming some do - there are such things as Christian Universalists, who don't believe in damnation), have chosen it. By that, I don't mean that they said to themselves, "Hey, I have my choice of eternal bliss or eternal suffering and I choose eternal suffering." What I mean is, they have a choice between God and themselves, and they picked themselves.
And may I just say that there's more to suicide than just "being sad"? You can be sad, horribly terribly unbelievably sad, and still say to yourself, "I have a responsibility to those who love me so I will not do this thing that will haunt them the rest of their lives." And maybe that's the real sin of suicide (at least of suicides that involve someone who isn't definitely mentally ill): Forgetting how it will affect other people.
S
Stone_Cold_Sisko
Guest
Because they needed a practical reason to keep everyone from killing themselves to go to heaven.
"there's this wonderful amazing place you'll go to... but ONLY if you follow our rules and believe this this and that, but not that over there..... and you can't take the easiest way to get there."
Where's the donation money and validation going to come from if everybody offs themselves to go to this better amazing place?
"there's this wonderful amazing place you'll go to... but ONLY if you follow our rules and believe this this and that, but not that over there..... and you can't take the easiest way to get there."
Where's the donation money and validation going to come from if everybody offs themselves to go to this better amazing place?
Because it's an utterly senseless thing to do. If you have really given up on your life, you could give it to others and spend it in service (as a volunteer for charities for example), that way someone less fortunate is benefiting from your life, even if you choose not to benefit from it yourself.
And George Kirk.
A. Never try to make 'sense' out of someone's arbitrary rules.
John 15:13
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"
Not suicide. Different motivation entirely.
Because once you create a paradisiacal afterlife, you need a strong taboo to prevent everybody from just going.
A much better question would be, "Why does God send anyone to hell?"
Even if God is so petty as to subscribe to the "an eye for an eye" nonsense (unlikely since even us small, flawed Humans are capable of rising above that), no Human is capable of committing so heinous a crime to equate to eternal torture. I doubt any Human has the ability to even imagine a crime equivalent to that - much less carry it out.
Even if God is so petty as to subscribe to the "an eye for an eye" nonsense (unlikely since even us small, flawed Humans are capable of rising above that), no Human is capable of committing so heinous a crime to equate to eternal torture. I doubt any Human has the ability to even imagine a crime equivalent to that - much less carry it out.
Not to disagree with you, because I agree that with the exception of very rare circumstances (i.e. choosing to die with dignity rather than live with a terminal illness that would be considerably painful to endure), suicide is not a good course of action. However, having dealt with the emotional scars that depression leaves with you on a personal level, why should I expect a person who is either unwilling or incapable of feeling good about themselves to believe they're of use to others? People suffering from depression think they're full of fail no matter what they do, and that the world is so full of suck that it would it be a slightly better place without them; at worst, nobody would care about their deaths anyway.
Obviously, that's not a good view of reality, but I know what it's like to be in that place. And I'm very lucky that the rational part of my brain is at least as strong as the emotional part.
And that I have good friends and family whose existence provides a strong reason for me to see the positive side of things.
As has already been pointed out: God does not send anyone to hell. They've chosen their fates themselves.
Suicide? There's nothing in the Bible that says all suicides go to hell. Nothing at all.
Cynical reason number one: because if the next life is so much better than this one, why not go there now?
Cynical reason number two: because your life is not your own, but it belongs to God. You can't do what you want with it.
Cynical reason number three: because suffering is a good thing and you totally deserve it, so you'd better keep suffering than trying to put a stop on it.
Pick and choose.
Cynical reason number two: because your life is not your own, but it belongs to God. You can't do what you want with it.
Cynical reason number three: because suffering is a good thing and you totally deserve it, so you'd better keep suffering than trying to put a stop on it.
Pick and choose.
Your actions on Earth do not determine you going to Hell or Heaven. Your beliefs make that determination.
You could be the meanest, biggest, son-of-a-bitch in the world and you get into Heaven so long as you have Belief.
You could be the meanest, biggest, son-of-a-bitch in the world and you get into Heaven so long as you have Belief.
Total cop-out.
God (if you believe the Christian version) invented the system, the rules. It's the same thing. Nobody would knowingly choose such a fate for themselves.
If I am wrong and end up in Hell, I will end up there for being mistaken. Not for being a bad person, not for any heinous acts, certainly not for choosing it - for mistakenly picking the wrong religion. Yeah, that's justifiable.
Last edited:
See above.
Similar threads
