Is suicide morally or ethically wrong?

Vajradhara said:
Salaam Abdullah,

if one does not have a belief in hell then i cannot see how such a consideration would ever come about. in any case, i would agree that it is usually the case that severe suffering is the motivating factor that causes a being to end their life.



i hope that you appreciate that the "unreligious" (which i understand you to mean monotheistic) don't have a belief in God and thus arguments which rely upon that belief are hardly going to be effective in preventing someone from taking their life. would you agree?



i grew up in Libya and spent years at the mosque. i've studied Islam as an adult for two decades and, yet, i remain unconvinced of it's veracity. nevertheless, i would prefer if we could leave such discussions for areas of the forum which are more appropriate. i'm sure you understand. :)

metta,

~v
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believers in God can be 'non-religious' too such as the general people in the world these days who believe in God but yet live very secular lives with religion playing a very little part in their lives if at all


So i take it by 'non-religious' you meant athiest

to an athiest i'd say, if you dont believe in God then you dont neccessarily have any objective truths; all is subjective for you, so there is no point in anyone trying to convince you that suicide is wrong, for you will only accept it if it suits your desires, for that is the basis of your subjective reasoning; accept whatever you please and 'deconstruct' whatever that dont

As an alternative, i'd tell him that there is overwhelming signs/evidences in the universe/creation that God does exist and there is an objective truth, thus he should search this truth out in all sincerety in order to find out the truth concerning any matter

I would have also told an athiest to trust more in his intuition; what his inner self tells him about this issue for it well could fall under the more obvious right and wrongs, but in the words of a great Scholar, there is a chance of appealing to someone's innate nature before he has reached the level of a PHD [reffering to the 'there is no objective truth' principle which it incorporates] for the PHD is 'when the cement is poured on it'! :D, however if it weren't aquired by a phd, then it may not be intensely indoctrinated thus there might still be a chance ;)

Peace :)
 
Vajradhara said:
Namaste all,

well.. that's the question :) not much more to it than that.

i'd be keen to hear your reasoning for why you think it either is or is not morally or ethically wrong. perhaps it's morally but not ethically wrong or vice verse?

metta,

~v
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I would say that's neither, but rather insane and foolish. Why would a human being in his right mind kill himself? Or herself for that matter. Unheard of!!!
Ben
 
Ben Masada said:
Why would a human being in his right mind kill himself? Or herself for that matter. Unheard of!!!
Ben
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How do you know that it is unheard of, rather than this being simply an expression of your opinion? Just because you are unable to countenance someone ending their own life in a manner and at a time of their own choosing, whilst also being in their 'right' mind, it does not follow that others are not capable of this.
 
Meaning is constructed by us. We ascribe meaning to life that is inherently meaningless.

For some, one becomes no longer able to construct a viable meaning. Each individual's circumstance will vary of course but may involve long term chronic terminal illness, a unmoveable sense of failure or worthlessness, a loss or lack of 
unconditional love...such circumstances may lead to the conclusion that oblivion is preferable to the unremitting darkness from which no end can be distinguished. 

In my experience, especially as I clock up mileage, the topic of death in all its aspects crops up more often. It is less taboo than it was and of course it is the one topic that we all share. I have often found people have at various times considered ending their life, if only as an option, a contingency. I also believe many people have not taken it further out of fear of the attempted event itself, fear of failure (like the person wil mentioned) and fear of what may await post-mortem.
 
i agree snoopy... it would be even more tragic, given some of the methods, to attempt suicide and fail... whatever remained of your life would be far, far worse than what prompted you to attempt such a thing in the first place.

...and your spot on...nobody gets out alive.

in ancient (not even that ancient really) cultures death was part and parcel of life and children learned of it early and often... in our modern culture we tend to protect children from this basic fact of reality..indeed, without the idea of "death" the idea of "life" is meaningless.

metta,

~v
 
Dear brothers and sisters,


One of the indian master Gorakh was passing through a village. One villager came to him and said i am going to suicide, you seems to be a monk. Even i have already decided to sucide, i just wanna your openion.

Gorakh replied "You have came on right place and right person to choose sucide". This is the best thing a person should do. Listening this the village man got shocked. You are a saint and saying like this. Inside in me i was thinking you will convince me not to suicide. Gorakh smilled and said " Do you realy think you can kill youself???". "Is it realy so easy??". You can kill you body, You are not just body. Your body is temple. You have appointed Mind as a functional head of this temple. The whole problem is due to this mind. If you can, If you dare then kill this mind. ruining the temple is not going to help. It is your temple and you have full authority to ruin it.

He then replied " Die O! Yogi Die. Die as much as and become a drop and then see the Ocean, to become the Ocean."

Thnx you all
royal monk the personal tour guide in india
 
Generally promoting suicide in a public forum I would think warrants banning and deletion.
 
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