esp if you’re one of the devout ones who think they’ve been really good
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buddhism has that too. if people were offing themselves in hopes of somehow reaching enlightenment thru killing, i’ve never heard of it. lol. the buddhist reasoning is that killing in general is bad but killing oneself is the worst of all because the one being that can choose to become enlightened (or at least try) and that you have control over is yourself. “so get crackin’” being the idea there.
My cult taught my 13 yo self that were I to take my own life, I would have to re-experience the life that led me to suicide in order for my soul to learn the lesson. But since I robbed another soul of the oppertunity to live as me, I’d have added bad karma and would reincarnate in (a non specified country in) africa. No more help was offered.
I’ve beaten depression, but suffered losses in cognition due to its severity and length.
I am an atheist and have always been one, so feel free to reject what I say here, but I think I understand why they aren’t, and let me illustrate with a story from my own life:
When I was 26, I moved from the Indiana town where I had spent my whole life to Los Angeles for work. I left my parents, my friends, even my wife for six months because she was finishing grad school. I knew I would see them all again eventually, but I still didn’t want to leave them and if there were a way I could have delayed it for years but still have been able to have a dream job in L.A., I probably would have. The first night when I got to L.A., I cried and cried because of everything I had left behind even though I was looking forward to a bright new future.
So it’s not that they don’t want to go to the afterlife, it’s that they want to experience this life as long as possible. They want to be with all of their friends and family now, not wait for them all to die so they can be reunited in heaven.
I don’t know, it makes sense to me.
I think you’ve misunderstood the awesomeness of heaven. You wouldn’t miss anyone. Infinite happiness.
The more deeply you think about heaven the more hellish it sounds. Basically you get stuck in this drugged-out bliss perpetually in worship of god. Because you’re stripped of all your corporeal problems and desires. You’re not going to hang out with friends (who would they be? Do they get a say what life stage they appear as?) None of your corporeal hobbies are there. Maybe your spouse decides they want to hang out with their previous partner who died in a car crash? You don’t learn. You don’t grow. You don’t get new experiences. You have nothing to look forward to. You’re a slave to stasis.
The only answer to solving these problems is to place the person in a bubble. But that creates a whole new set of problems. Heaven sounds pretty shitty.
Religious beliefs are in no way uniform or rational on that sort of concept.
Yeah, but without the carrot, people would fight against the stick. Every religion has both the things you shouldn’t do and the reward for not doing them.
As far as I know at least.
You’re talking about what people should think. I’m talking about people’s motivations based on what I am suggesting they actually do think.
That’s absolutely fair. Sense making isn’t a requirement then.
This makes total sense.
No matter how good the afterlife is, it’s not going anywhere. Life, however, is unique and finite and so should be savored.
Just like my peepee
Yes. I’ve seen a religious person on their death bed saying that they have lived long enough and are ready for god to take them.
Jesus’ verses to us about life being a gift resonate here. The duties we have aside that may shift the balance, it’s too unique an experience to say Heaven surpasses it in gift status. I wish I enjoyed mine more though, I’m more indifferent to it.
In roman-catholicism suicide is a bad thing that makes god angry. In the past, clerics said you would go to hell if you were to commit suicide. We also have the commandment that says “thou shall not kill”, which is shared with a lot of other religions. So, we are educated to not facilitate death, and I guess the idea is to die peacefully when death comes, thinking about the afterlife. Don’t think “exciting” is the goal here.
Also most of the early Christian sects who believed either this or “no marriage/children until the second coming” died out. Either literally or they got absorbed into Catholicism as various orders.
Speaking about Christianity – but it’s not an unforgivable sin. If one believes in what is common in Christian sects and is having a difficult lonely life without support, it definitely makes sense to commit suicide. God being angry, but then forgiving you and allowing you to live in heaven sounds better than a life of despair to me.
It’s my opinion that most people that call themselves religious don’t actually believe. The true believers are the ones doing suicide bombings and fighting unwinnable wars.
They still have the survival instinct and inborn fear of death. But yeah, one of the advantages of religion is that it helps to elevate this inborn fear a bit.
I’ve asked a number of religious guys what happens if you kill infants, would they go to heaven? If so, why don’t we since that will result in eternal happiness without all the life suffering and risk going to hell.
One person (Catholic) told me, the babies would go to heaven if they were baptized and then killed. The other person (Christian) told me they can’t determine this because they’re not God.
When I was in primary school with mandatory religious education this is how I saw it
The American death cult that moved to Venezuelan forest, they definitely didn’t go to heaven
They are often, consciously, but the biology of us works so that most decisions are made unconsciously. The nature of all biological life is that there’s a survival instinct, which is in full effect for religious people as well. So they try to live as long as possible anyway, inventing all sorts of reasons for doing so.
Religious belief is inherently not made to make sense, it’s to alleviate fears. Trying to make sense of it rationally like you do is futile.
If you watch the testimonies of Near Death Experiences on YouTube, a general theme is that the sensation of dying, once you have passed over is one of a great relief like a great weight has been lifted from your soldiers. And those that get sent back often have regrets after returning to their body to complete their earthly missions, as the physical body is so heavy and uncomfortable. But there is usually a great sense of purpose attached to being here, even though most of the time these things are hidden from us. Maybe the reason these things are shrouded in mystery is so people don’t off themselves to get back to paradise. I have also seen some testimonies of suicide NDE’s and past-life regression hypnosis accounts in which people whose lives were prematurely cut short were reincarnated very soon after dying in order to learn the lessons or complete the missions/purpose of the life that was cut short.
DMT and the desire to be on tee vee.
Religion has crafted their rules to make sure they maintain control. They can’t control dead people.
Not all religions have a heaven to look up to. Most schools of Hinduism, and Mahayana Buddhism, require a person to live multiple lives before they achieve nirvana (‘non-being’ or ‘enlightenment’, not ‘heaven’). Other schools of Hinduism and Buddhism are either silent on life after death (Theravada) or reject it (Navayana, Charvaka).
