why is society so anti suicide?

[wildflowers1996]

When I was younger I really had it drilled into me. Suicide is a tragedy. We need to "save" people who are suicidal.

I'm not quite cynical enough to believe it's just to do with the economy.

I'm guessing the main reason is rooted in religion, and the other is suicide harms the loved ones of the person who passes away.

It's just so ingrained in me. "Life is a gift". "You should be grateful for everything you have".

I suppose part of me feels like life is a test, and I fail by ending it.

 

[divinemistress36]

Most people think the struggle is worth it and death is bad

 

[jbear824]

The short answer: religion and money

 

[KillingPain267]

I agree, it's not just the economy. But neither is it religion because every religion and non-religion has a pro-life spin despite their philosophy and religious texts not really proving it. Ask a non-suicidal atheist and they will also vehemently disagree that non-belief is more pro-choice and pessimistic of life. In fact, over time as a Christian, ironically, I've realized that my religious texts are very negative about how THIS life and THIS world is (full of sin, evil, corruption and pain man causes etc.) and the hope is in a NEW resurrected afterlife rather than clinging to this passing world.

So to answer your question why humanity is generally anti-suicide or pro-life according to my religious belief, it's because God never created suffering and death. "Life is a gift" only made sense when life was originally created (to be immortal and without suffering). Death is the cessation of life. When Adam and Eve sinned though, death and pain was introduced to this universe. So since death was never intended, it feels UNnatural. And that explains survival instinct and why we on average cling to life no matter if painful and meaningless since it ends. When you think about it, survival instinct makes no sense when we know we all die anyway and eventually know the species dies as well. So being anti-suicide and pro-life is like a visceral trauma response. Bring up death to an average person and they will try to suppress it. Try to tell even a 65 year old that they will die soon (even 20 years more is not that much) and they will feel offended somehow as if they think they will never die). Ask children under a certain age and they actually think their grandparents will never die. Imagine how few animals even know they have an end (when they see a fellow species member die they must think it was killed and not aged and died "naturally"). Death is something even us highly conscious beings have suppressed to think about on a daily basis even though it's literally all around us.

Anyway that's my uncommon answer to this question.

 

[ARW3N]

To be honest, I don't think it's got anything to do with religion, which is just the product of our human fears, especially the fear of death. Even animals are afraid of death, which is where the survival instinct comes into play. The anti-suicide brigade has got more to do with the primal, instinctual dread fear of death. However, none of this ignores the fact that once we became conscious, we also became aware that we can extinguish consciousness. Existence is suffering is acknowledged even by religions. We don't suffer when we sleep, which is an indication that life was always a mistake to begin with.

 

[MatrixPrisoner]

To be honest, I don't think it's got anything to do with religion,

I think it has more to do with this mythical folklore called "religion" than we all think.

 

[Phenylhydroxylamine]

I think I would mostly agree with previous posts and say it's religious brains. Religious brain doesn't just mean belief in god or something like christianity though, it can also be some absolute nonsense like stoicism (philosophy that states you should take it up the ass and not complain). I think the core of it is more just strong cultures preying on the vulnerable psychology of the manic life addicts.

Pro-lifers are pro-gamblers.

 

[noreallynotmarcy]

When I was younger I really had it drilled into me. Suicide is a tragedy. We need to "save" people who are suicidal.

I'm not quite cynical enough to believe it's just to do with the economy.

I'm guessing the main reason is rooted in religion, and the other is suicide harms the loved ones of the person who passes away.

It's just so ingrained in me. "Life is a gift". "You should be grateful for everything you have".

I suppose part of me feels like life is a test, and I fail by ending it.

Religion. Philosophy. I don't get it either, I think if one wants to end their life they should. I think about ending it constantly and I hate that I can talk about it without causing a stir.

 

[snowbird]

I do believe it is immensely influenced by the greed of the governments, so yeah, economy.
If every adult over 18 was allowed to exit life whenever they chose (and be granted a humane death in a hospital by falling asleep and never waking up again) - many, many, MANY people would take advantage of this right. Which would result in fewer and fewer people, the rich struggling to stay rich because there would be less poor people to exploit. So in return, to stop the trend, countries would be forced to make sure that people are generally happy. Provide free healthcare everywhere, make sure that work environments are good, that everyone has enough food and appropriate shelter etc etc
Such things are expensive and the rich would not become richer this way, quite contrary.

I don't believe in any religion and there's obviously fanatics in every version of 'belief' - but personally I think money is the biggest factor.

 

[Lost Magic]

I went to a park and nearly every bench had a phone number for the Samaritans. The truth is nobody knows what to do and they don't want more statistics to deal with. They would prefer charities to take care of things rather than address the root cause of the suffering that people face on a daily basis.

 

[hellworldprincess]

I'm not quite cynical enough to believe it's just to do with the economy.

Although in this day and age people are sufficiently convinced that all human life is worth preserving for some sort of metaphysical reason, the origin of this belief is definitely just economical.
Religions were created and formed by people/institutions which needed workers to build their temples to vanity, to produce food and to reproduce the workforce.
If they hadn't told peasants in the middle ages they were going to hell for CTB and hadn't made the existing cases into examples by denying them burial, probably o lot more people would have wanted to get out of their torturous, meaningless existence.