Suicide

Since I just made a post about a crappy day, I decided to write one about suicide. No, don't worry, I never had any thoughts about taking my own life and probably never will, although I'm not trying to say all atheists are the same. Atheist, believer, whatever, I think that when you get to a point where you commit suicide, it's because something was really messed up in your brain. In other words, we should help people like that, but if they kill themselves, it was probably not a rational choice at the moment, it was not their fault (yet, some believers will tell you that it's a sin).

I sincerely believe that being a believer is harmful to you in that kind of situation. If you have a succession of bad things happening to you at one point and god doesn't help you, you're going to think he doesn't care about you. It makes you feel even worse about yourself, because now you think you're a piece of shit in the eyes of the perfect being who made you and who is supposed to care about everyone. Also, when it comes to the time of ending your life for real, some people will panic at the last minute and seek for help. One who truly believes that there's an afterlife will be more inclined to do it. After all, if you shoot a bullet through your brain, you appear dead on Earth, but your soul is released to go to an infinitely better place.

Of course, that's where beliefs are not shared by everyone. There's the branch of believers (let's take christians, I know them better) who say that no matter what, if you believe in Jesus he forgave you and you go with him in his kingdom to suck his cock or I don't know what (some go as far as to say that if you've been saved once, you're saved forever.) There's the other branch which thinks you go burn in hell, even if you just had a mental breakdown. Yeah, you can really feel the love of god now, can't you? There's a thinner branch of believers who don't believe in hell, but in some kind of separation from god for people who didn't obey the rules (hey, that includes me), which is still bad considering that other people are rewarded with infinite pleasure just for believing in the right thing.

None of that matters for the believer to stop him from killing himself. After all, if you've been raised a christian all your life, you think that humanity is worthless. We are all guilty of the original sin, a truly sick concept, but thankfully god sent his son or himself or I don't know (the trinity is not only a complex concept that nobody can really explain, but not all christians even believe in it) to be the ultimate sacrifice. All I'm saying is that the person who thinks god had abandoned her, the person who goes as far as taking her own life having been raised a christian, well maybe that person thinks she deserves to go to hell and kills herself to get the right punition.

Of course, I know that not all people are like that, but it's a dangerous thought. As a believer and a parent, you think it's good to teach your religion to your children. Most of the time, the child of a believer ends up being the same kind of believer, but there are exceptions like me. Now think about it, especially if the god you're talking about is not real. Think about the dangerous ideas you're propagating for something that has never been proven. Think of how you could grow up to be a good moral person only using rationality like me. That's beneficial since you understand better the natural world you live in and you are less likely to get other false ideas. Think it's impossible to be a moral atheist? Think again!