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Poll: Chopping off a hand for religious reasons?

would you chop off a hand for spiritual/religious reasons?


  • Total voters
    33
  • Poll closed .

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
Tbf many of these folks were straight up murdered.
And Heaven's Gate thought they were going to be picked up by a spaceship traveling behind a comet. (How that was to happen after they were dead, I have no idea.) That's not exactly a spiritual reason. Lol
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
No, that's insane and sick. If your religion is leading you to harm or kill yourself (or does nothing to prevent you from doing those things), either you've misunderstood the religion or the religion is batty and you should run from it.
Well tbf he did kind of run from it.
 

firedragon

Veteran Member
Here is a link to a newspaper story about a Buddhist Monk who chopped off one of his hands for spiritual reasons. Apparently so that he'd be reincarnated as something cool after he dies:

Buddhist monk chops off his own head with a guillotine to please Buddha | Daily Mail Online

Poll: would you cut off one of your hands for spiritual reasons? For instance, to get closer to God?

For me: No. No I wouldn't. I don't believe doing so would please God.

Look at it this way: the more hands I have, the more I can please God.

This thing is subjective. In Buddhism there is nothing concrete really. I dont know about Hinduism much but even in that I believe (My Assumption only) there is still nothing concrete on it. But as far as I know in Christianity and Islam and even Judaism suicide is definitely not done. No go. No way.

Anyway I think your question is based on simple logic. Though you had mistaken head to hand, still your question is pertinent.
 

Samael_Khan

Goosebender
Between suicide and celibacy one would expect that religiosity would have gotten a Darwin Award already. But for every suicide there is a couple breeding like bunnies.

You mentioning the Darwin awards cracked me up! :tearsofjoy:

The reason why religiosity isn't dead is that most people who are religious have sense, which often times forces them to modify the belief. Suicide is reserved for the cults and celibacy is reserved for the most devout. The breeding like bunnies, I think, is reserved for the uneducated and destitute for the most part, as they aren't good at strategic planning.
 

Samael_Khan

Goosebender
And Heaven's Gate thought they were going to be picked up by a spaceship traveling behind a comet. (How that was to happen after they were dead, I have no idea.) That's not exactly a spiritual reason. Lol

You know, with the word "heaven" in their name, one would automatically assume that they were a religious group therefore spiritual. But... they were into aliens. The only way I can rationally harmonize this is that they were ancient alien theorists.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
You know, with the word "heaven" in their name, one would automatically assume that they were a religious group therefore spiritual. But... they were into aliens. The only way I can rationally harmonize this is that they were ancient alien theorists.
No, they were a New Age UFO cult lead by an obviously schizophrenic person (Marshall Applewhite). His story is actually rather sad. He was a self-hating gay man and ended up castrating himself. He needed serious help and never got it. He wasn't an evil person, from what I can tell. He wasn't Jim Jones. He really went into the deep end after the woman he started the cult with and who was his best friend and life partner died. Then he broke from reality, becoming obsessed with the apocalypse (which was a 180 for him), increasingly paranoid, etc.

They did have spiritual teachings, like belief in a soul and afterlife, but they made zero sense. Somehow their souls were to be picked up in a spaceship, and his dead friend's soul was also on board, and they would all go and live happily on another planet. It was obviously just an excuse to kill themselves as he didn't want to live anymore, and was obviously very upset over his friend dying. I think he just wanted to be with her, really. I have no clue how or why any of his followers believed it.
 
Last edited:

Clara Tea

Well-Known Member
Here is a link to a newspaper story about a Buddhist Monk who chopped off one of his hands for spiritual reasons. Apparently so that he'd be reincarnated as something cool after he dies:

Buddhist monk chops off his own head with a guillotine to please Buddha | Daily Mail Online

Poll: would you cut off one of your hands for spiritual reasons? For instance, to get closer to God?

For me: No. No I wouldn't. I don't believe doing so would please God.

Look at it this way: the more hands I have, the more I can please God.

Harm never helps. Except, in the case of punishing criminals.

Thing (Addams Family) was handy.
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
Poll: would you cut off one of your hands for spiritual reasons? For instance, to get closer to God?
I know there is a Hindu story in Bhagavad Gita where someone chops of his right hand to please his Guru (who asked for this)

Seeing the context, my guess is that its done without painkillers, so definitely a "No No" for me; I leave this to the 'diehards'
 
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