by Wilkes Paise

Created on: April 19, 2010

My mother committed suicide. While I was recovering from this, I wondered if suicide was a sin. This is surely normal. But people only wonder about this because religions say that sinners go to Hell. Therefore, the only religions’ stances to consider are those that preach Hell. These are Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

The Qur’an flatly states that suicide is a sin. It also says that people who commit suicide will go to hell:

 "And do not kill yourselves, God is merciful with you. And whosoever does that with aggression and inequity, we will make them suffer in Hell fire, and this is easy for God to do” (29-30, 4)."

 If the Qur’an is true, suicide is clearly a sin and a damning one.

Judaism prohibits suicide in oral law though suicide is not directly referenced in Torah. There are many in Judaism who believe in reincarnation—in fact, the majority of Jews do. If this is accepted, it may be said that the suicidal person’s soul is reincarnated until all parts of it are corrected.

Christianity is more indirect. The Roman Catholic Church officially condemns suicide. And the majority of protestant denominations are against suicide. They justify this stance by stating that murder is a sin so suicide, which is murdering oneself, is a sin as well. The problem is that Christianity is so divided. There are some sects of Christianity that support suicide. These are usually cults.

Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism and most other religions accept reincarnation. This makes suicide no more than a very, very sad act. It will not cost the person eternal happiness.

The question must now be brought to reason. All three abrahamic religions claim to have an omni-benevolent God. If this God is all-loving, would he send a sick person to hell? A person who commits suicide is mentally sick. The common retort is that God is all-just as well. However, what does he have to be just about? A mentally sick person should be healed by the omnipotent God, not sent to hell. Jesus could cast out the demons of people who attempted suicide. Elijah could send fire from the heavens. But God cannot heal a sick person? Furthermore, God will send the person to hell. This sounds unjust and the opposite of omni-benevolent. Reason shows inconsistency in the religions’ own doctrines.

If a sin is defined by religion, suicide is a sin. If a sin is defined by reason, suicide is clearly not a sin. It is unreasonable to accept the former as inconsistency exists within religions' own doctrines.

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