On suicide and maybe atheism

The Op in talking about the loss of one his Sunday school students. While we sympathise with their deep loss, we reject his misrepresentation of atheism and atheists.

To misrepresent a group intentionally must be wrong in most ethical systems. And as such when this author writes

My next reflection was on the hollowness of atheism in a time like this. No, not hollowness, but downright wrongness. I thought of Richard Dawkins’ quote “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.”

and then a paragraph later

But over that, something inside me screams out to the atheists that suicide of a loved one is indeed proof that evil exists, that we want good, and we are incapable of believing that blindness and indifference is the way of the world.

Is to mislead his audience that might not be too critical. The Dawkin’s statement refers to the universe being indifferent. The author’s paragraph portrays atheists as indifferent.

And I would agree with anyone who asks if a good god existed, why did it do nothing? That is a right question to ask.

on suicide and immortality of the soul

Friends who are regulars of this site know the host has no problem with anyone who decides to quit this life on their own terms. I will go so far as to say that when a person who attempts suicide fails and is arrested, we are punishing them not for trying to kill themselves but for being clumsy while at it. I see no other justification for punishment in such a case other than the one already stated.

Readers are also aware that I have no belief in the immortality in the soul.

It is with this background that I share this article on suicide and immortality of the soul.

On suicide and immortality of the soul

What do you think

Of a woman who after having passed through some handling by soldiers said

God be praised, that once in my life I have had my fill without sin.

Euthanesia

We think talking about what god is, whether there are any gods and if they care about us, though sometimes interesting, there is nothing new we will say that will bring any gods to life.

We are going to look for data and debates on euthanasia. This will be our next topic of discussion.

To move the debate forward, I will declare where I stand on this debate. I support the procedure and look to a time when this will be available to everyone who requires such help.

We will try our best to look for interesting posts on this topic.

The problem of omnipotence

Friends, a while ago in a post I did ask if it was possible for god to commit suicide. I want to revisit the post but I want to ask a different question. Omnipotence would mean that whatever god willed, it should happen. We are told his creating the universe was an act of will. So now, don’t you all the think the most important question for a god would be what would happen if it were not there… in essence what would happen if god ceased to exist.

Am assuming this is what happened at the beginning of the universe, in willing the universe into existence, he willed himself out of existence and this explains why there is no evidence for a god.

What are your views?

Meditations on suicide

Fellow sufferers, they tell us their god is omnipotent, and they limit this ability to doing those things that are logical. To kill oneself is logical. My question then is, can their god kill himself?

The good death

Friends, many of us shudder at the mention of death, and indeed in some cultures I know it is taboo to even mention it. They argue mentioning death spells bad omen. Since, I don’t agree with them, I think death is a good thing and that we can’t live fully if we don’t appreciate the fact that we are here for a brief moment after which we will return to the deep abyss of nothingness from whence we had come. I don’t know about you, but my feeling is that dying is a good thing though I can’t say this authoritatively since I have not experienced death to be able to decisively describe how it feels to die.

In our times, I find Eric at Choice in dying to be one person, there could be many others, who argues for a good death, the philosopher’s death. A death that one chooses the way to die, to put differently, one takes matters into their own hands and become what, for lack of a better word, I will call god. It is this death as Socrates many years before us chose to die rather than to continue living after being sentenced by a jury of his peers for what was called by some of his accusers, corrupting the minds of the young men of Athens. It is the same death Cicero preferred to living as a slave and writes in his letters to his friend Atticus and his brother Quintus while in exile that he’d rather he kills himself if there is no hope of returning to the republic than to live in disgrace.

I find this words of Nietzsche to be agreeable to me in support of a good death, death on our terms.

To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death freely chosen, a death at the right time, brightly and cheerfully accomplished amid children and witnesses; then a real farewell is still possible, as the one who is taking leave is still there; also a real estimate of what one has achieved and what one has wished, drawing the sum of one’s life- all in opposition to the wretched and revolting comedy that Christianity has made of the hour of death. One should never forget that Christianity has exploited the weakness of the dying for a rape of the conscience and the manner of death itself, for value judgments about man and the past.

Here it is important to defy all the cowardice of prejudice and to establish, above all, the real, that is  the physiological, appreciation of so-called natural death- which is in the end also “unnatural”, a kind of suicide. One never perishes through anybody but oneself  But usually it is death under the most contemptible conditions, an unfree death, death not at the right time, a coward’s death. From love of live, one should desire a different death; free, conscious, without accident, without ambush.

 

Cicero on suicide

I have lost my chance of dying with honor, henceforth death may end my grief but cannot heal my damaged reputation

A contradiction of sorts

Friends, it has occurred to me that in the theist’s mind, especially the christian, there exists a serious contradiction that I find hard to explain. In this post am going to try to detail some of this contradictions and look forward to hearing your thoughts about them as well.

I will start from what the christian believes will happen to the unbeliever in nether world. He believes when the Grim Reaper calls the unbeliever he will send him/her straight to hell to be administered to by the devil. The believer has in their mind that the unbeliever is an agent of the devil working hard to lead them astray, now tell me, if I have been working for the devil is he going to punish me or will he not prepare the choice wines for his followers? If god is preparing a heaven full of bliss for his children, the devil must do the same unless we change the administration of hell to be a good but malicious angel of god and not his antagonist. What say you?

My second concern comes from the genesis story of creation and subsequent warnings at the fall of man. Anyone who has read the story is aware that Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil, had no knowledge of what it means to die, what it means to give birth and labour, so what was god getting at when he issued edicts that they will die if they eat of the fruit of knowledge or that henceforth child-birth will be a painful experience and that man shall have to toil to eat, please help me with this.

My next problem is in the way the christian apologist twists the meaning of words to suit his purpose. Now why do I say this? Any rational person alive today, maybe except some extremist Muslim somewhere in Afghanistan, knows that to command genocide is evil. To kill first-born of families for no fault of their own is malicious or to drown an entire generation of people is beyond description; the theist says we can’t know what is good in god’s eye or mind I don’t know whether it has this things in the first place anyway. Should that be the case, then what meaning has the word good if god considers drowning an entire generation good? Do we really need to worship such a god? Please tell me!

The theist objects to suicide that it is against the edicts of their god. Now consider that the first christian, the one who died on the cross, if he lived, committed suicide except he abdicated the responsibility. Why I bring this up is to ask, is an all-powerful and all-knowing god deficient in ideas? Every time he has had need to purify the human race, he has chosen death as his modus operandi. Does he need our help in coming up with more humane methods of conflict resolution?

I don’t understand why the theist prays. You ask him, he says he doesn’t want to change the mind of god but to know god’s will. Now tell me, maybe am wrong, but the many times I hear a prayer, someone is asking for rain, for good health, for a job. Is this the will of god you are trying to find, are you trying to change his mind or are you asking him to act in your favour? But if he is an omniscient being, hasn’t it occurred to you that he knows you’d be making such a prayer and he knows how is going to act such that making the prayer in itself is an act in futility. Maybe I don’t understand it well, please someone help!

The theist makes a positive claim that their god is just and merciful. Forget that the two qualities are in themselves contradictory, this just god punishes everyone except the responsible person. Let me explain; in genesis when man fails he punishes man while in real the person with the greatest responsibility is this god. He created satan more intelligent than man, he placed the fruit in the garden and he was all-knowing. In the chain of events, he ought to bear the greatest responsibility, if anything he owes man an apology. When Pharaoh, who god hardened his heart, fails to release the sons of Israel who god had led to slavery, he kills every first-born even of slave girls. Please tell me what justice, what mercy this is? When Moses disappears to talk to god for forty days and returns finding the people with a golden god, who does he punish, all the men except the family of Levi. When David has Uriah killed who does he punish, the baby or David? Please tell me where the justice and mercy is?

Here am a little confused. Jesus we are told preached to multitudes of people and that one point he fed 5k men; this count doesn’t include women and children. He preached in synagogues, by the riverside and entered triumphantly, if riding donkeys is triumphant, into Galilee and nowhere are we told the soldiers lived in garrisons or barracks, why would someone be needed to betray a celebrity of this kind? Anyone would identify him in a crowd? Did they just want to transfer the guilt of his suicide to Judas? All generations have vilified Judas for the betrayal, did he have a choice? While at table Jesus says one of you here is going to betray me, if he already had foreknowledge, why didn’t he call Judas aside and tell him not to do it? Where was his power at this time? Please while answering this questions don’t bring that line that I need to be a bible scholar to understand zilch in the bible, god would have said so himself. If he wants to be worshiped by intelligent men, he has to do be as clear as is omnipotent-ly possible or else he throws the tag omnipotent out of the window.

I want to stop here in the anticipation that you’ll be kind enough to help shed light on these matters that are between me and your god. Maybe there could be a change of heart.

thoughts on suicide

Suicide (Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, “to kill oneself”) is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death.

Here I had written on the meaning of life as a review of A. Camus book the Myth of Sisyphus. In this book, Camus argues life is absurd and meaningless. He further says man finding his life absurd should not commit suicide but must revolt. An absurd life calls for revolt not suicide.

In this post however, I want to examine whether there are situations when a man should be allowed to commit suicide. I want to show here that there are instances where suicide is justified. There are situations, for example an inmate in prison for life without parole, where suicide should be allowed, why waste his life waiting to die naturally within the four walls of a prison cell? There is likely no contribution he is likely to make to the rest of humanity and he lives his days praying for death to come sooner.

The biggest objection to suicide is highest among adherents of the Abrahamic religion. To them suicide is a great sin, a sin against god, and anyone who attempts suicide and succeeds doesn’t get a decent burial, and those who fail are arrested and put in jail. They believe god is the giver of life and only can take it. Question is, if we have no evidence for a god, then why should we consider suicide evil? Why not allow fellow-men the right to die in dignity?

Suicide has also been considered a disease and an act of desperation. Some people have killed themselves because of depression, heartbreak after being jilted by lovers and for many other reasons as there are human beings. For situations such a these, if there is an opportunity to restore the fellow to his senses, by all means let us do that but let us not put him in chains and send him to prison. Jail-houses are not hospitals, let us get the man a shrink and help him. Let us not increase his suffering.

If we are agreed that there are no gods, then all depends on us. This being the case, if a person having reached a point where they are convinced their lives have no more meaning and they are not adding to the joy of their family should be allowed to choose to die and can’t be vilified in choosing to quit. Many people argue that if this were allowed many people would be killing themselves whenever things got tough and this is simply not true. Cigarettes and alcohol are legal in most places and not every one is a smoker or alcoholic, so this argument simply cannot hold. I don’t know about you, but I think it would take a lot of courage to take one’s life. Consider a situation of a man who is terminally ill and the doctors feel there is no return, why should this person be kept alive on life support instead of being allowed to die with some dignity? Some of the theists who argue that life is sacred have no problem with the death penalty, why should they have a problem when one chooses when and how to die? Why should anyone have a problem with a person who chooses to die on his/her own terms?

To claim that god is the giver of life and only him/it/she can take it means that the same god enjoys to see people suffering till they get to vegetative state. Why would anyone want to live like this? I would not want to. If we have made laws in defiance of the gods, then we must make another in their defiance. We must allow man the dignity to choose when and how to die.

Any christian who opposes suicide is acting against his religion. The christian religion is based on suicide. God, in the form of Jesus[whether he existed is a matter of a different blog post] goes willingly to his death. Many want to call it self-sacrifice, I will call it suicide, except he places the responsibility on other people’s hands. So if you reject suicide, you must reject Christianity as well. There are no two ways about it.

I think there are several other instances where committing suicide would be the most moral in the circumstances which I don’t want to enumerate but  I would rather like to hear your opinions on this matter.