Do you consider suicide to be a selfish or "sinful" act?
If you're not religious, then eliminated the sinful aspect of the question....do you consider suicide to be a selfish act?

Yes I do. Unless you are terminally ill and in worse pain every day and there's no hope and it's not going to get better, yes I'd say it's a very selfish thing. I don't think it's a sin, but it is pretty selfish because then the whole family suffers and for their whole lives they will always be wondering what they didn't do or should have paid attention to or what they did to deserve losing their child, their sibling, their spouse, etc.

I don't know if I would consider it a sin but someone has to be in extreme emotional pain to take your own life, it takes a lot of guts to do that.

In theory it would be since It's murder, murder of self. If you believe in all that theology junk. I don't consider it necessarily selfish though. What's selfish to me is someone forcing themselves to keep on living in misery for the sake of other people.

Except we're all in misery, and if you kill yourself you're never going to know if things would've gotten better. What about that 13 year old girl who hanged herself because 'a boy' on the computer told her to? Is that brave? Would it be selfish to expect her to have more brains than that?

I don't think of suicide as a sin or selfish at all. It's one person's life and they have that choice - it's their life, they should do what they want and what they need to do. I'm not going to sit in judgment and say they're being selfish or sinful.

Yes, it is a sin, no question about that whatsoever. It's murder of self. Circumstances could make culpability for said sin vary, but a sin is a sin.

I don't think it's mentioned anywhere in the bible that suicide is considered a "sin"? As for if it's selfish or not, maybe maybe not, but I think it's equally selfish (even if totally understandable) for loved one's to feel embittered because the person decided that they didn't want to live their life anymore.

^^^^I thought not murdering anybody applied to yourself.

Since I'm not religious I'll sidestep the "sin" aspect. As far as it being selfish, a person in this state is generally not thinking about how it might have an effect on other people because they're so overwhelmed by their own misery. So I guess that could be considered selfish. But it's also selfish to a degree for the people left behind to get caught up in their own anger & grief sometimes to the point of making themselves the victim. As Robbie said, it's understandable but also selfish as well. We all are at times. It's human nature.

However, there is a difference in being selfish while you're alive and it can be a passing thing, and killing yourself and leaving everybody who you care about in the dark about the why because you just think 'ah screw it, I don't want to live anymore, it's never gonna get better than this and I'm not waiting around to see if it does'.

CeCe wrote:

Since I'm not religious I'll sidestep the "sin" aspect. As far as it being selfish, a person in this state is generally not thinking about how it might have an effect on other people because they're so overwhelmed by their own misery. So I guess that could be considered selfish. But it's also selfish to a degree for the people left behind to get caught up in their own anger & grief sometimes to the point of making themselves the victim. As Robbie said, it's understandable but also selfish as well. We all are at times. It's human nature.

It can become selfish, I agree. But I think it's often rooted in just criticism.

Besides, the families wouldn't be able to be 'selfish and make themselves a victim' if their loved one had never killed himself, or maybe explained WHY they did it instead of just leaving everybody in the dark. It's all easy to say 'well it was their life, they had to be able to do what they wanted, it's selfish to expect them to live just because you want them to', but that just sounds like somebody who they or their family or their friend was NEVER affected by somebody killing themself for no known reason and everybody they know wants to know WHY they did it.

Marc™ wrote:

Do you consider suicide to be a selfish or "sinful" act?
If you're not religious, then eliminated the sinful aspect of the question....do you consider suicide to be a selfish act?

I don't consider it a sin necessarily but I do consider it selfish. Although there is no direct scriptural reference for suicide being a sin, many Christians consider it a sin primarily based on their intepretation of this scripture of the bible:

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 "16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
King James Version

To the layman, this passage would seem to suggest that if you are a Christian your life and for that matter your body are no longer your own, they were bought with the blood of Christ. And to destroy your life (a temple of God) is to dishonor the sacrifice that Jesus made for your salvation.

The problem with this scripture is that 1) it is from a very old translation and 2) is taken out of context. If you look at any modern translation of this scripture it reads differently.

"16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple." New International Version

"16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple." New Living Translation

"16 Do you not know that you [a] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple."

[a]The Greek for you is plural in verses 16 and 17 English Standard Version


When the entire scripture is read (1 Corinthians 3), it can be put into its proper context. The scipture is not discussing suicide at all, but divisions within the church. Verses 16-17 are not literal but figurative analogies and they don't refer to an individual destroying themselves, but people would would destroy the temple of God (which is Jesus' congregation). The "you" in those verses is plural meaning followers of Christ. According to people who read this from an older less accurate translation and who take this scripture completely out of context, suicide should be considered a sin. They also believe it is a sin because they feel its a dishonor to the sacrifice that Jesus made for our salvation. But I personally disagree with them not only for the reasons I've given above but also from a logical standpoint. Jesus' sacrifice paid for our salvation from the second death, not the first. Every man MUST die once after being born on earth because death is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) and all mankind has sinned (Romans 3:23), therefore every man must die. It is the second death (lake of fire) that Jesus' sacrifice saves us from, not the first. And even IF (for arguments sake) suicide was a sin (which its not), that still doesn't mean that people who commit suicide are going to hell because all mankind will be judged and every sin can be forgiven. Jesus ultimately judges us based on our deeds and if a good person who accepted Christ as their savior was suffering enough to consider suicide, I don't know why the "sin" of ending their suffering could not be forgiven by their savior.

Now, while I don't think that suicide is necessarily a sin I do howerver think it is selfish. The death of a loved one is obviously very painful, particularly for your family and close friends who will be hurt by your death. You decided to spare yourself the pain of living by ending your life, which in turn has pushed that pain onto everyone else who loved you. I do think that suicide under certain circumstances is justified though. I don't believe a person who is suffering should have to endure that suffering at the expense of everyone else's "feeling". But I do think that the "stronger" a person is, the less likely they are to succumb to thoughts of suicide. That's my two cents!

captainbryce wrote:

But I do think that the "stronger" a person is, the less likely they are to succumb to thoughts of suicide. That's my two cents!

I definitely think that that is true because otherwise, why are so many teenagers killing themselves just because somebody calls them names or insults them? That's not brave, that's not selfless, that is one of the dumbest things you can do, kill yourself just because you got your feelings hurt. Of course, one thing attributed to that whole mess is the line 'the teenaged years are the best years of your life', it's a very confusing time, everything changes, and if a person sees everything past that as sucking to no end, it makes sense they would see logic in killing themselves to avoid the misery.

mur·der
   /ˈmɜrdər/ Show Spelled[mur-der] Show IPA
–noun
1.
Law . the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).


Murder is the act of killing SOMEONE ELSE. Suicide doesn't fall into the category of murder.

RobbieFTW wrote:

mur·der
   /ˈmɜrdər/ Show Spelled[mur-der] Show IPA
–noun
1.
Law . the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).


Murder is the act of killing SOMEONE ELSE. Suicide doesn't fall into the category of murder.

You're speaking in terms of law, not Bible. You're also speaking in terms of a modern definition, not the intent of the book at the time. Murdering yourself specifically violates the commandment. It's the taking of human life. Disagree with the teaching if you will, but the Bible clearly is as anti-suicide as it is anti-murdering anybody else.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

You're speaking in terms of law, not Bible. You're also speaking in terms of a modern definition, not the intent of the book at the time. Murdering yourself specifically violates the commandment. It's the taking of human life. Disagree with the teaching if you will, but the Bible clearly is as anti-suicide as it is anti-murdering anybody else.

Justify to us "biblicaly" that murder includes suicide. The definition of "murder" has never changed. If it has, prove it "biblically". Taking of human life is not always considered murder. If taking a life a human life is always considered "murder" and murder is always a sin, then how could God order men to "murder" other men in his name? He couldn't, and yet he did in the Old Testament. The only reconcilable conclusion is that there are circumstances in which taking a human life is not considered murder. That being the case, if you are going to charge that suicide is one of those cases, you need to be able to justify it biblically, otherwise it's just your opinion based on your own personal view. If the bible was clearly against suicide (as you suggest) show us the scriptures that back up that assertion.

^^^^Consider Matthew 22:39, where Christ says that you must love your neighbor as yourself. If loving yourself means that you could kill yourself, then it would follow that you could do the same to your neighbor, and clearly that is condemned.

Thou Shall Not Kill is also the common sense application. Killing yourself is not somehow excluded. You may be able to justify killing an enemy in war or somebody threatening your own life, but there is no such justification existing for suicide. Care to give me a Biblical justification for it? Wanting to die is not a justification. If somebody wants to be murdered, killing them is no less murder.

(1 Corinthians 6:19-20) Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Honoring God with your body does not mean killing yourself. I think that is pretty clear. Self abuse is wrong, especially when it's intent is death. I don't see how one can square honoring God with their body with suicide.

If you want to reason that suicide is okay Biblically, one could easily reason that ANY murder is biblically okay. Suicide is no different than murdering somebody else from a Biblical POV. You can't use justifiable homicide to justify suicide. Sorry, but the Bible says NO to killing yourself. You'll have to reject the Bible(which I think is not a problem for most people these days) if you wanna off yourself.

According to the Bible, anything outside of God's will and glory is basically a "sin." One could argue that suicide is not God's intent or plan for people. So take that as you will. However, like everything else in life, there's about a thousand different inferences and circumstances at play here that muddies the situation. Is someone who is suffering from a mental condition commit suicide, in their altered state of mind, guilty of sinning? Hmmm.

^^^^That's where you get into some slightly deeper theology. We could be here all day with that. But is somebody in an altered state of mind capable of "sin" anyway? Suicide itself is objectively sinful. Whether a specific case has circumstances that make that one case not as sinful is something that can only be taken case by case.

Suicide is what it is. Someone decided to take their own life because they felt they didn't have any other option. It's either tragic or unfortunate or both. People should stop trying to rationalize it.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

^^^^Consider Matthew 22:39, where Christ says that you must love your neighbor as yourself. If loving yourself means that you could kill yourself, then it would follow that you could do the same to your neighbor, and clearly that is condemned.

Sorry but this line of reasoning requires WAY too much extrapolation, misintepretation of scripture and circular logic to work. If suicide was a "sin", it would surely be stated clearly in the bible (probably under one of the commandments). It's not! You are drawing a conclusion about suicide form a scripture that isn't referring to suicide at all. "Love thy neighbor as thyself" implies that you would want to treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated. It's the golden rule! You cannot murder yourself because suicide is not murder (unless you can demonstrate biblically that it is). At best this scripture could be twisted to refer to euthanasia only, and for the record, I don't consider euthanasia to be murder either because it is done to relieve suffering! If you relieve the suffering of someone else (at their request) you have not murdered them and you have in fact obeyed the commandment given in Matthew 22:39.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

Thou Shall Not Kill is also the common sense application. Killing yourself is not somehow excluded. You may be able to justify killing an enemy in war or somebody threatening your own life, but there is no such justification existing for suicide.

For the record, the actual commandment correctly translated is "you shall not murder", NOT "thou shalt not kill". The KJV is the only translation that renders it that way. Unfortunately, such a commandment would make no sense considering God later commands us to kill. Killing your enemies under combat is not murder therefore it is not sin. By the same argument killing yourself is not murder. Murder (unjustly killing someone else) is always a sin which is why it is specifically a commandment.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

Care to give me a Biblical justification for it? Wanting to die is not a justification. If somebody wants to be murdered, killing them is no less murder.

I don't have to give a biblical justification to prove that suicide is not murder. You do! You are the one who says it's a sin, therefore the burden of proof is on you. Nobody wants to be "murdered" but some people want to die. You keep confusing the terms murder and killing. They are two different things. Murder always involves killing but not every killing is a murder.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

(1 Corinthians 6:19-20) Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Honoring God with your body does not mean killing yourself. I think that is pretty clear. Self abuse is wrong, especially when it's intent is death. I don't see how one can square honoring God with their body with suicide.

Sorry but I already addressed a similar scripture in my original post. You fail on this logic because you have incorrectly intepreted this scripture. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 refers specifically to sexual immorality, not suicide. This is made clear if you actually read the entire scripture. You cannot take a scripture out of context and apply it to something else simply to justify your opinion.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

If you want to reason that suicide is okay Biblically, one could easily reason that ANY murder is biblically okay.

No they can't. The reason being, suicide is NOT murder. They are two different things. Only if suicide was defined as murder could your example work. And the only way you can do that is to use circular logic by incorrectly intepreting scripture. Until you can find a scripture that specifically says that suicide is "a sin", or equal to "murder", you cannot justify your position biblically.