Well I believe that suicide is a sin, but one that is forgivable. I'm struggling to find the passage but somewhere in the Bible it pretty much says that the harming/destruction of God's creations is a sin. That would include yourself as you are a creation of God.
Then swatting a fly would be as sinful as suicide since flies are a creation of God. Or worse yet, destroying a plant to eat it is a sin.
Yeah, and most christians have worked on Sunday at least once. Can't pick and choose which ones apply.
That's nowhere mentioned in the Bible.
you're right , but the christian bible does speak against suicide and self harm . i'm not christian whatsoever and can't stand religious ppl or religion itself but the bible definitely does mention "consequences" for sucide .
I can't find it anywhere explicitly mentioned.
The biblical command "Thou shalt not kill," often cited from the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:13, is traditionally interpreted as forbidding murder—the unlawful taking of another person's life. Historically, this has been understood as a prohibition against homicide rather than suicide.
Yeah, it was St. Augustine who first made that argument and the church pretty much followed him since then, but it's a stupid argument as I showed in my post.
However, suicide is not explicitly mentioned in this commandment, nor elsewhere in the Bible in a clear, direct way. Many Christian theologians and scholars have argued that the commandment against killing also implies that individuals should not take their own life, based on the broader principle of valuing human life as created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
The same book in chapter 9 (Genesis 9) also enacts the death penalty for murder. Later on, the mosaic law enacts the death penalty for many other sins. So clearly, the "principle of valuing human life" did not trump things like the survival of the nation Israel as a theocracy back then. Nobody was objecting Moses about threatening the death penalty for idolatry due to the "valuing of human life", lol. I'm sure an argument from Scripture could be made about valuing the QUALITY of human life as well.
Why do you suppose God(s) want their will to be so ambiguous and able to misinterpret? Because they want people to have free will? You can still set clearer rules (that you presumably get punished for not obeying) and let people have free will over whether they want to obey them- surely? Doesn't seem fair to not actually set clear rules.
You could say the same thing about the government and its rules, regulations, circulars. They have even MORE unclear rules, and often numbering in the tens of thousands. That's why lawyers exist. No normal person could ever possibly understand, let alone obey, all the rules the government has for us. "Doesn't seem fair to not actually set clear rules." But guess what, you still get punished for violating them. Are you also objecting to the existence of police, prisons, fines etc.? Anyway, the New Testament is not about laws but rather love. We should do what is loving towards our neighbour, not strive about law details.
The presence of lots of other Gods presents a problem too. Most Gods seem to demand absolute loyalty. Again, it seems like you can get into trouble for worshipping the wrong (or, false) God. Do you suppose you'd still be a Christian if you had been born in India? It seems more likely you would be raised Hindu and worship lots of Gods. Why punish someone for being born somewhere where they were taught the 'wrong' rules? Presumably that works in reverse too. If it's the Christians that got it wrong, they're in fact worshipping the wrong God.
I was not raised as a Bible believer. My parents are not religious. The question of what is truth is not determined by where or how you were raised. That defense wouldn't even fly in court. For example, if you honor-killed your sister just because that's how it's done in Afghanistan, it wouldn't fly in court in London. Or in general, the question of what truth is. There is only one truth, it's not determined by where you were born. There is no excuse. For example, if you are a doctor who was born in traditional China and only believed traditional Chinese medicine is true, then you wouldn't cure many diseases. Not even NATURE excuses people based on how they were raised!
Someone cited Samson the other day as an example of God condoning suicide. God condones murder there too. Giving Samson the strength to kill himself and the Philistines. Is Samson the earliest equivalent of a suicide bomber? I actually had no idea God supports that kind of extremism. Seriously though? How do people interpret that differently? God condones the killing of your 'enemies'. That's pretty dangerous thinking- no?
Yes, under the theocracy Israel, it was up to warlords like Samson and the people to defend the land. A nation defending itself from invasion, what a shocker! Nobody today would ever do that today, right? Lol. Every single nation today would kill their enemy invaders. Hardly extremist. That said, I actually believe the New Testament has abrogated all that. It dissolved the old theocratic nationalism, and Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you, and condemned Peter for drawing his sword. The old prophecies also said there will come a time where they "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4). War and nationalism is now invalid and Christians are supposed to lead the way for pacificism and world peace, following the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). Obama even said if we followed the Sermon on the mount, the whole defense department would have to close. He said it ironically, but I actually believe it. So before you take the moral high ground above the Bible, are you a pacifist who rejects imposing force on fellow human beings?
