Does any religion treat suicide kindly?

[Xaeniak]

I'm mainly familiar with Christianity which vilifies suicide, so are there any religions that treat it with compassion? I want a god that personally visits the souls of those who die by suicide, and apologize, and offer anything they can do to ease that soul's suffering before letting it go. Is that not a more compassionate view, rather than saying suicide is an act of evil? If the world is so bad that those living in it can't stand it anymore, that's a failing of the universe against that person, not the other way around.

 

[Ligand]

I was really interested in this question a while back, so I did quite a bit of reading on this topic. Pretty much every major contemporary religion has a negative view of most types of suicide to varying degrees. There are a few exceptions like martyrdom in Judaism, Sallekhana in Jainism, and very limited amounts of suicide in some Buddhist traditions.

You need to go far back in history to find any society where suicide is allowed or actively encouraged. It wasn't terribly uncommon in Ancient Greece or early Rome for men to kill themelves if they could no longer perform their jobs (due to illness). This is briefly mentioned in "The Republic" by Plato. In "The Republic" it is said that extending the life of a chronically ill person is akin to taking money from the state. These men were often encouraged to kill themselves. Women were not spared either. A particularly horrible practice was that women in these cultures were often expected to kill themselves if they had been assaulted, in order to "preserve their honor." These are not explicitly religious views, but religion and state/tribal practices were frequently interconnected in early history. So there is good and bad that comes with societal acceptance of suicide.

Interestingly enough, neither the Hebrew bible nor the New Testement explicitly ban suicide. There are good arguments that they ban suicide in a "roundabout way," but there isn't any direct condemnation of the act of suicide itself. If you are interested in further reading this is a fantastic resource: https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/

 

[J&L383]

The Bushido code and samurai traditions included a role for suicide under the right conditions. (I went through a period when I watched lots of old Japanese movies, lots of fun!) But it's been outlawed when Japan modernized, although suicide today in Japan is at least on par with the rest of the world.

 

[g04tZ3GVTZ]

on par with the rest of the world.

or more like they're winning ammaright

 

[anne neum]

any kind of organized religion treats suicide negatively. i find it in a nature of an any big enough system.
if you want more compassionate ones, look for more archaic beliefs, ie animistic or archaic pagan. (not neo pagan)

 

[Cornbread4708]

It is one of the those institutions that profits from labour of man.. why does it go against life?

 

[cosifantutti]

I'm not sure many Christian leaders would now say that cbt meant going to hell. In the Catholic church they'd say it's a grave sin.

I have a friend who's a nun and mentioned suicide and what would happen to me. She said that on that score there was nothing to worry about.

 

[Paranorm]

With my familiarity of Christianity, I can confirm that suicide is highly discouraged and is a sin apparently. Which doesn't make much sense to me because if God (if you believe there is) gave you life against your will and gives you free will meaning you can do whatever you want with your life, how does ending it count as sin? is it not a choice you've made with the very free will you're allowed to have? In fact, why must anyone be doomed to suffer in Hell all because they ended a life they never asked for in the first place.

 

[LuisV]

Regarding hell, what kind of loving God would condemn a living being to endless suffering. If according to Christianity we are made in the likeness of God, not even we, being inferior, see that as an act of infinite cruelty. It's sad to think how much pain this idea must have caused in the past, even if not as widespread today.

 

[DepressedSloth]

Buddhism is certainly less harsh towards it overall, it's kind of a gray area. Most buddhists will probably be against it more or less, but it's not demonized as much. As for self-immolating monks and buddhists, it's a bit of a gray area where most buddhists would say its not really suicide but a self sacrifice for the benefit of others. But even then there may be a lot of division.

 

[real person]

maybe the heaven's gate cult lol

 

[noSuffering]

I don't know much about other religions, but yes, first of all, any large enough structure becomes against suicide. This is a question of its existence. Buddhism is no exception, in words - Buddhist public figures deny suicide and do not popularize the suttas where the Buddha directly approved of suicide, but it is not difficult to find them.

 

[leavingthesoultrap]

Ancient greeks I think

 

[XXXWRLD]

maybe the heaven's gate cult lol

A ctb retreat would be

 

[Mitsumi]

Maybe Shinto. They don't demonize it at least.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

As a skeptical Buddhist, I'm just trying to rack up good karma by helping people and doing kind things so that on the off chance reincarnation exists, I'll have a better shot in my next life.

Although I doubt rebirth is real, I figure it also adds meaning to my life to be kind, develop patience and compassion, etc.

For what it's worth I think people seek to gain a lot pragmatically from Buddhism, as it will inspire us to be kind to others and ourselves and if rebirth doesn't occur, we don't lose much by being kind.

But yeah Buddhism would suggest suicide to be a negative karma (not morally bad, but just recognizing it does cause suffering, which You have to come to terms with if you're going to ctb anyways; people will be sad). It's a pretty mild karma in the grand scheme and there are contextual exceptions (e.g., look up the burning monk in Saigon, 1963). Essentially the negative karma is the sadness to family & community. You won't go to hell or anything though (not without an abysmally large number of lifetimes of negative karma, at least; one act will only set you back proportionally). You'll simply be reborn into a world where the sadness and it's ripple effect goes out into your next life.

As I said, I think it's unlikely, but I'm preparing for the possibility.

If the self is impermanent and can cease to exist, it stands for reason that consciousness is still over the fence; the universe experiencing itself. We just don't "see" it because we are stuck identifying/perceivong as ourselves. When we die we become the process of the universe unfolding, including all the consciousnesses that exist. It is not "we" (as remember, "we" died), but the universe (which "you" are now) will experience consciousness again and again through the natural creation of conscious beings.

So the universe will experience consciousness again.

How you make sense of this is up to you. We tend to codify it through personal symbolism (religion) but the fact is that once we are dead that's all irrelevant. All there is appears to be perception and matter.

There's probably nobody manning the light at the end of the tunnel. But you can take a few steps towards that, and be easy on yourself while you move towards what you'd like to construct as that light. Giving yourself patience and ease in just existing, and should you choose to die, also not hating yourself.

Shame is a much greater negative karma than suicide will ever be. In fact, it probably results in much of it.

I hope this helps.
May you find peace in living or dying
- Rhizo

 

[neurotic]

I'm mainly familiar with Christianity which vilifies suicide, so are there any religions that treat it with compassion? I want a god that personally visits the souls of those who die by suicide, and apologize, and offer anything they can do to ease that soul's suffering before letting it go. Is that not a more compassionate view, rather than saying suicide is an act of evil? If the world is so bad that those living in it can't stand it anymore, that's a failing of the universe against that person, not the other way around.

If they encouraged suicide in any way, their followers would kill themselves. I'd hypothesize religions/beliefs in anything which allowed any form of this would slowly die out naturally as the believers would just slowly kill themselves off. Anyone on the outside perspective of that religion would live as a result out of fear of dying. It may seem obvious, but that's my hypothesis on why you (probably) won't find any religions with that sort of view. Most of what you would find (again, probably) is religions/beliefs that focus more on you individually or can be taken in any way you choose.

HOWEVER, This obviously would not include religions/beliefs who believe in sacrifice, punishments (stoned to death, crucified, etc.), or even something so far as infant sacrifices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tophet). Obviously not what you're looking for as I assume you're trying to find something not so dated and cruel.

 

[Manfrotto99]

"Religion is a range of social-cultural systems" and most social and cultural system simply look negatively on suicide. You would have to look beyond religion to find the real message behind any given doctrine and how it relates to suicide, as you won't find it through the lens of our existing culture and social systems. That generally requires some form of spiritual experience and personal conviction. This is why you get some christians who say suicide is a sure way to hell while others say is not the case at all. Though, the Catholic church is changing some of its hard lines on suicide in light of society's changing attitudes to condemn people who take their life.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

I don't know much about other religions but I'd be surprised if they did. From what I've seen, most religions preach about the sanctity of life and how beautiful human life is and suicide would shorten said human life. Also, if suicide were to be allowed, then most people could kill themselves after they get their sins cleansed or once they knew they done good things as they'll just go to heaven anyway. And, lastly, religions exist only to increase its followers; suicide would achieve the opposite result to that

 

[Manfrotto99]

I don't know much about other religions but I'd be surprised if they did. From what I've seen, most religions preach about the sanctity of life and how beautiful human life is and suicide would shorten said human life. Also, if suicide were to be allowed, then most people could kill themselves after they get their sins cleansed or once they knew they done good things as they'll just go to heaven anyway. And, lastly, religions exist only to increase its followers; suicide would achieve the opposite result to

Why would most people kill themselves? people on have have awful lives and they even struggle to find a way out and to overcome their SI. It is much easier to do good things when life is good to you. If you had a beautiful life and had the good fortune to only do good all the time to supposedly ensure your way to heaven, then you would have no desire or need to CTB. While yes religions exists to increase their numbers its certainly not the only reason. They exist to partially install a moral compass in us, but also to install fear to make us "toe the line". Simply put, if society and culture does not agree with suicide, and there are many reasons for that, then it will construct it's religions to do the same in order to make us compliant.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Why would most people kill themselves?

Because then they are guaranteed to get a place in heaven and heaven is far better than our current life will ever be

people on have have awful lives and they even struggle to find a way out and to overcome their SI. It is much easier to do good things when life is good to you. If you had a beautiful life and had the good fortune to only do good all the time to supposedly ensure your way to heaven, then you would have no desire or need to CTB.

Not everybody who has had a good life ends up doing good things. In fact some of them act like assholes towards those who aren't having a good life

While yes religions exists to increase their numbers its certainly not the only reason. They exist to partially install a moral compass in us, but also to install fear to make us "toe the line". Simply put, if society and culture does not agree with suicide, and there are many reasons for that, then it will construct it's religions to do the same in order to make us compliant.

Fair enough to all of this

 

[Manfrotto99]

Because then they are guaranteed to get a place in heaven and heaven is far better than our current life will ever be

Not everybody who has had a good life ends up doing good things. In fact some of them act like assholes towards those who aren't having a good life

Fair enough to all of this

Sorry but there are no guarantees when it comes to belief and religion because it cannot be proven. I'm Christian and some Christian doctrines follow what is written in the Bible which says that we cannot work our way into heaven by what we do. Infact it says that God turns away people who rely on their works to get into heaven. Also I would did not say "everybody" who has an easy life does good things. It only makes it easier to do good and scientific studies have proven this.

 

[mortuarymary]

Buddhism maybe.

 

[Manfrotto99]

Buddhism maybe.

Don't you get bad karma, maybe come back to experience even worst conditions? Until you learn to accept your state and serve and love regardless of your suffering. I don't know enough of Buddhism to say. Maybe depends on the branch of the Buddhism you follow?

 

[kane9191kosugi]

or more like they're winning ammaright

Not really actually. This is a pretty common misconception because I see a lot of "suicide nation = Japan" posts on the internet, but the rest of the world (especially developed nations in the west) has pretty much caught up to Japan's tier, while countries like South Korea and Russia are leaps and bounds ahead of the pack.

I'm too lazy to search but in one of the statistics, US has actually surpassed Japan in suicide rate (not sure what's the criteria though).

 

[Shrike]

Mine does. :) Agency is sacred above all. But it's a secular religion, no gods in it.

Buddhism never struck me as sympathetic here, it's always quick to blame suicidal people for being too attached to things, since suicidal people often talk of suffering and Buddhism is very "if you're suffering you're just not enlightened enough".