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Is it religiously wrong to commit a suicide?

Segev Moran

Well-Known Member
No worries..
Only asking cause i really am intrigued about the subject...

So I really wonder if it is okay or not based on religious aspects to take your own life?

Now, if the answer is no.. Why not?

I Can assume that it got something to do with the fact that our body is not really ours to end and it is only up to god...
If so, How come its okay to take the life of someone else?
And of course not... I'm not talking about murder.. I'm talking about "Justified" murder...

Who claimed its OK to kill person A and not Person B?
In the ten commandments, i haven't seen any references to the fact you can kill someone if its war..
Or if he is a murderer...
Or if he is trying to kill you..
Or whatever reasons we humans find...

Now.. assuming GOD did say.. Ok ok... do not murder unless it is someone who tries to take your land or it will be safer for the environment to kill him or whatever...Than it's fine...

So if that is true, what if I know I am about to commit a terrible thing and the only thing to stop my self is to kill myself?

Please help a confused man :)
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Is there anyone who you love who if they killed theirselve, it would be ok with you or would you suffer their death?
 
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Tumah

Veteran Member
No worries..
Only asking cause i really am intrigued about the subject...

So I really wonder if it is okay or not based on religious aspects to take your own life?
No.

Now, if the answer is no.. Why not?
Depending on which type of suicide it is, either because we are commanded not to in Gen. 9:5 or because we are commanded not to in Deuteronomy 2:4, 4:9, 4:15.

I Can assume that it got something to do with the fact that our body is not really ours to end and it is only up to god...
We can make up all the reasons in the world, but it doesn't change the bottom line.

If so, How come its okay to take the life of someone else?
And of course not... I'm not talking about murder.. I'm talking about "Justified" murder...
If its justified, its not called murder, its called killing.

Who claimed its OK to kill person A and not Person B?
G-d.
In the ten commandments, i haven't seen any references to the fact you can kill someone if its war..
Or if he is a murderer...
Or if he is trying to kill you..
Or whatever reasons we humans find...
Why is the 10 commandments the standard? Your name sounds Israeli, but you talk like a Christian...

Now.. assuming GOD did say.. Ok ok... do not murder unless it is someone who tries to take your land or it will be safer for the environment to kill him or whatever...Than it's fine...

So if that is true, what if I know I am about to commit a terrible thing and the only thing to stop my self is to kill myself?
Presumably not, in at least most circumstances since we are commanded to guard our lives, even at the expense of transgressing other commandments. But when it comes to idol-worship, murder and immorality, we are allowed to martyr ourselves, so there might be room there.
 

von bek

Well-Known Member
Presumably not, in at least most circumstances since we are commanded to guard our lives, even at the expense of transgressing other commandments. But when it comes to idol-worship, murder and immorality, we are allowed to martyr ourselves, so there might be room there.

Do you consider willing martyrdom equivalent to suicide? I ask not to antagonize, but because I don't know what I think.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
So I really wonder if it is okay or not based on religious aspects to take your own life?

From what I believe, it is wrong. That's the "highest" commandment that I'd consider is The Buddha's teaching is to not take a life. I think the reason is that taking a life is depriving someone of being enlightened. From a Bodhisattva point of view, it's actually contradicting the nature of the Bodhisattva vow, to lead and help others be enlightened. If we kill people, how are we showing compassion etc of The Buddha. If anything, we are creating bad karma upon ourselves. It's also contradicting the nature of life. We are born, we live, age, and pass on. Interrupting that process is interrupting the laws of nature. I feel we don't have the right to do.

In a god point of view? It's wrong because god gave you (people in general) life. The consensus is only god can create and take lives. Kind of like a parent has the right to take the life of their child because they created the child. Weird concept, but there ya go.

If so, How come its okay to take the life of someone else?
And of course not... I'm not talking about murder.. I'm talking about "Justified" murder...

It isn't. No murder is justified.

Who claimed its OK to kill person A and not Person B?
In the ten commandments, i haven't seen any references to the fact you can kill someone if its war..
Or if he is a murderer...
Or if he is trying to kill you..
Or whatever reasons we humans find...

There isn't. It's all on the people. Politics. God gives and takes lives. I don't know how people justify their actions and even more so base their actions on scripture. I find that odd.

So if that is true, what if I know I am about to commit a terrible thing and the only thing to stop my self is to kill myself?

If you are forced to commit a terrible thing? The Buddha doesn't say kill yourself to prevent it. It's more attend to whatever is causing you to think of committing a terrible thing and meditating (etc) on it and defuse that line of thinking.

In a god-sense, I'd assume god would say no. Especially if it is premeditated. If not, many Christians do give people a slide if they have no option to kill. To me, it's bad karma nonetheless. I don't think god blesses people for killing in self-defense. That would be odd.
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
Do you consider willing martyrdom equivalent to suicide? I ask not to antagonize, but because I don't know what I think.
There's no word suicide in Jewish law. The Law depends on the reason behind the death. If it was done in a permitted case of martyrdom, it is permitted. If it was done in a prohibited case of martyrdom or for other prohibited reasons (almost everything else) its prohibited under the prohibition of taking one's own life. If its done out of emotional sickness then its still prohibited, but its part of the requirement to guard one's life (ie. health).
 

von bek

Well-Known Member
There's no word suicide in Jewish law. The Law depends on the reason behind the death. If it was done in a permitted case of martyrdom, it is permitted. If it was done in a prohibited case of martyrdom or for other prohibited reasons (almost everything else) its prohibited under the prohibition of taking one's own life. If its done out of emotional sickness then its still prohibited, but its part of the requirement to guard one's life (ie. health).

Thank you for your response. Point taken about Jewish law not using the word suicide.
 

Segev Moran

Well-Known Member
Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Is there anyone who you love who if they killed theirselve, it would be ok with you or would you suffer their death?

Of course...
My late grandmother..
She begged for death so many times and i wish it was okay to help her.
She unfortunately suffered so much in her final months it was a shame to see her fade away as she did.
I think it would have been only human to allow her to die with quiet and ease instead of the rough rough way she had to spend her last few months.
 

The Emperor of Mankind

Currently the galaxy's spookiest paraplegic
No worries..
Only asking cause i really am intrigued about the subject...

So I really wonder if it is okay or not based on religious aspects to take your own life?

Answering for my own religion: I don't know, probably?

I suspect Hellenics arguing against it for religious reasons would cite the hubris of deciding how long we live for rather than leaving such things to the gods or the Fates. It's really down to the individual Hellenic though; I'm not against it for religious reasons. There are figures in Greek myth and history who committed suicide (even if indirectly) who weren't condemned as hubristic. Ajax is a prominent one after he went mad over not winning Achilles' armour
 

von bek

Well-Known Member
Answering for my own religion: I don't know, probably?

I suspect Hellenics arguing against it for religious reasons would cite the hubris of deciding how long we live for rather than leaving such things to the gods or the Fates. It's really down to the individual Hellenic though; I'm not against it for religious reasons. There are figures in Greek myth and history who committed suicide (even if indirectly) who weren't condemned as hubristic. Ajax is a prominent one after he went mad over not winning Achilles' armour

Yes. Ajax is a great example. A warrior needs honor and respect from others. You cannot read the Iliad and miss the importance of this. (We will set aside for the moment that Achilles himself refutes the warrior ethos when Odysseus visits him in the Underworld during the Odyssey.) Looked at from this perspective, is Ajax's suicide a religious act of protest?

In addition, how do you view Socrates committing suicide, especially in light of the fact that he could have escaped if he wished to? (At least, according to Plato.) Could his suicide be seen as Socrates honoring the gods by submitting to the laws of Athens?
 

VioletVortex

Well-Known Member
No. I believe that Satan is a powerful life force, and does not take lives. Lives are taken by the circumstances, by another person, or by oneself. Does Satan forbid suicide? No.
 

ronandcarol

Member
Premium Member
Is it religiously wrong to commit a suicide?
I believe that no one has the right to take their own life or another life. God created each and everyone of us and only God can end that life when our number is up. We are all here by the Grace of God and our time on this earth was noted in God's timetable, before the world began, as to exactly when our life would end.

ronandcarol
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
In Catholicism, suicide is a sin because life is viewed as a gift from God. Suicides used to not be given a Christian burial, either. As for my own opinion, I think God would be merciful to those who kill themselves out of severe distress and despair. He understands. I'm often suicidal, myself.

I'm more of a pacifist and I don't think that God supports killing anyone.
 

arthra

Baha'i
Only asking cause i really am intrigued about the subject...
So I really wonder if it is okay or not based on religious aspects to take your own life?
Now, if the answer is no.. Why not?

Well generally we believe God gave us "life"... so to take our own life is to cut short the plan of God for us in this world.

But in the Baha'i Writings suicide is forbidden.

"In reply to your letter of 1 May 1979, the Universal House Of Justice has instructed us to share with you the following excerpt from a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi by his secretary to a believer who asked about suicide. "'suicide is forbidden in the Cause. God Who is the Author of all life can alone take it away, and dispose of it the way he deems best. Whoever commits suicide endangers his soul, and will suffer spiritually as a result in the other worlds beyond.' "the House of Justice admonishes you to put all thought of suicide and death out of your mind and concentrate on prayer and effort to serve the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, June 7, 1979)

(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 203)
 
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