Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 16 replies, 17 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 5 months ago by
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Quite a few Christians go around saying that if you commit suicide, you won’t go to heaven. Why do they consider it a sin, and how popular is this belief among Christians worldwide?
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Name : Rob S., Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 26, City : Poole, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom,I wouldn’t call the belief so much ‘popular’ as ‘accepted.’ It goes like this: murder is a sin so serious as to exclude someone from heaven, suicide is murder of oneself, and even if one is determined to repent of it after the deed is done (before the soul leaves the body), one has no guarantee that they will live long enough to get this chance. Some people who commit suicide have despaired of salvation as well as life. Most Christian moral theologians nowadays say that suicides act under compulsion or when one is not in their right mind, but this is flawed because a person unconcerned with loss of salvation (e.g., an atheist or believer in universal salvation) might have a perfectly rational reason for wanting to end their life. Living in extreme physical or mental agony with no other way out would be an example of this.
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Name : Augustine23392, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 42, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Suicide is killing someone. Therefore to commit suicide is to commit murder, which is violating one of the ten commandments. God gives life, and only He can take a life. That is the reasoning behind suicide being a sin. It is not universally accepted in Christianity that suicide is a sin. When Christ died for our sins, He paid for all our sins. Although one cannot deliberately sin and say that His sin is covered, some people have been under the influence of drugs, or other influences and feel that life is no longer tolerable. Having said all this, if Christ is living in us, we are no longer our own. We belong to Christ. When we run out of our resources, we are to call on His resources.
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Name : Arnold-U23789, Gender : M, City : Edmonton, Alberta, State : NA, Country : Canada,If someone said that to me, then I would ask them to show it to me in the Bible. I have yet to see the scripture that says suicide is a sin, but I have read in the Bible at Exodus 20:13 where God says quite plainly ‘you must not murder.’ There and in other scriptures we can see that God values human life. It would be a great disrespect to the Giver of all life for a person intentionally destroy another human life, no matter how it is done (murder, suicide, abortion, whatever).
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Name : Chandra, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Jehovahs Witness, Age : 26, City : Detroit, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : Secretary, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,In Catholic dogma, if you commit suicide, you will not go to heaven, or at least that is how it used to be. Many other religions felt the same way. The reasoning behind this was that life is sacred and a gift from God and to throw it away would show a lack of regard for this gift. But as times change, so does religion. Some have begun to reason that a sane person cannot commit suicide. So they started asking if a crazy person is responsible for their own actions. And because the Bible speaks very little of insanity or suicide, the religions are forced to answer the question without much guidance. 1 John 4:8 says that God is love… and would it be loving for Him to judge someone who is not in their right mind? That is not logical. In fact, the Bible speaks of God’s four attributes as Love, Justice, Wisdom and Power. For Him to be truly loving, truly just and truly wise, He would take all factors into consideration. Which raises the question about sane people knowingly killing themselves and how God feels about that – i.e. cigarettes. But that is another question.
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Name : Dave26017, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 34, City : Tampa, State : FL, Country : United States, Occupation : CSR, Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class,So, how about if you came accross a person that had been wounded in some way that caused them intense agony and death was likely? Is it ok to end that person’s life for them if they deperately want to end the pain? Is that murder? What if a person refused treatment because they felt it was unnatural or it was ‘there time to go’ as my grandmother did. She slowly died over the period of 2 months due to cancer in her abdomen. She could have sat in a hospital bed for many more months receiving medication and treatment. Did she commit suicide? I think it’s silly to say what’s going to happen to someone if they do this or that. You telling me how God judges us? Little presumptous I think.
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Name : Mike S., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 29, City : Ft. Bragg, State : NC, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : military, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower class,Suicide and murder are totally different things, you really need to invest in a dictionary. Murder is defined as the taking of like against that persons will, people who commit suicide want to die and therefore cannot be murdered.
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Name : Bert, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 31, City : London, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom,What most Christians/Catholics don’t realize is that the Ten Commandments weren’t really meant to be followed to a T, but rather, designed to show how imperfect we, human beings, really are (since there is no way we could follow them) and how much we need god to save us from ourselves. Since we weren’t meant to follow them, how can committing suicide be a sin?
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Name : A.P.R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Agnostic, Age : 17, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,Beyond being a murder issue, taking one’s life is destroying the ‘temple’ of the Holy Spirit for Christians. Since we believe that the Spirit ‘takes up residence’ within us, we do not have the right to kill ourselves, thus destroying the temple.
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Name : Todd, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 39, City : Omaha, State : NE, Country : United States, Occupation : Professional, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Back in my Christian days, i deduced such a conclusion independent from the arguments of others (always been a bit of a thinker *g*). It goes like this: Suicide is a sin, because it’s murder. All sins are rectifiable if one asks God’s forgiveness. However, given the nature of suicide, the very act of commiting this particular sin would render a person too dead to ask forgiveness afterwards. Now, this probably contradicts the line that states that blasphemy (of the Holy Spirit?) is the only unforgiveable sin, but one could then argue that suicide *is* blasphemy. Being agnostic now, I regard the question as merely an academic exercise, but I wonder what others may think.
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Name : Michael20690, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : bi-curious (mostly straight), Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 20, City : Livingston, State : LA, Country : United States, Occupation : undergrad, Education level : 2 Years of College,In legal terms ‘insane ‘is defined as knowing right from wrong.A serial killer is of course a ‘little off’ but to stand trail he has to be found sane.That is to say was he aware of his actions and did he know it was wrong?I believe its the same with suicide and heaven .If you kill yourself and you know its wrong but do it anyway yes you are committing a sin and you will die without salvation. I was once told that no one goes to hell unjustly .God knows you and your state of mind therefore it his decision.
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Name : brian23012, City : memphis, State : TN, Country : United States,suicide is a sin because you are killing someone. its like telling God He doesnt know the right time for someone to go. But if you are a christian, there is no way for you to lose your salvation, even if you ::do:: kill yourself. i dont know why anyone would, and it would be hard to face God after calling Him inadequate for not taking someone when its their time. If a christian really loved God as they say they do, they would not kill themselves, but once forgiven always forgiven, if you were truly forgiven
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Name : teen24685, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 14, City : Notelling, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,The true Christian is aware that there is only one sin that will keep you out of Heaven, and that is rejection of God’s gift of salvation through acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s Savior. All other sins are exactly equal in God’s eyes; all are abhorrent to Him, but none will keep you from entering His Kingdom if you give your life to Christ and accept Him as your Savior. While suicide is by definition a sin if you consider it to be self-murder, which many (myself included) do, it is not a sin that will cost you your salvation. Personally, I believe that God is grieved by the pain and despair that infects a person’s life to the point that that person deems life no longer to be worth living.
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Name : Melody, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 40, City : Kansas City, State : MO, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College,Suicide is killing yourself (of course) and it is against the ten commandments to kill. The only cultures that encourage suicide are usually extremist groups who encourage self-sacrifice to kill others.
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Name : M-Rose22541, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 19, City : KC, State : MO, Country : United States,I’m a Christian and I believe suicide may be sinning but that doesn’t mean the person won’t go to heaven. I believe in grace and that means that even if we sin, we will still go to heaven as long as one believes in Jesus – and so if suicide is a sin, that’s covered too!
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Name : Jonathan-Koh, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Christian, Age : 25, City : Singapore, State : AR, Country : Singapore, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,
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