Atheists and suicide

[Tempus]

I've sometimes wondered if suicide rates are higher amongst atheists, once ultimate meaning in life is removed suicide can be rationalized.

I've entertained the idea for a while that the more intelligent the person is the more prone they are to depression. I have no idea how this idea tracks reality (if at all). Since higher intelligence is correlated with atheism, it could be that intelligence is causing both depression and atheism. Though again, I haven't any idea whether that's actually the case or not and I have yet to read the study you've linked to. I'll give it a look and I might post again.

[Ace Otana]

I've sometimes wondered if suicide rates are higher amongst atheists, once ultimate meaning in life is removed suicide can be rationalized.

I've entertained the idea for a while that the more intelligent the person is the more prone they are to depression. I have no idea how this idea tracks reality (if at all). Since higher intelligence is correlated with atheism, it could be that intelligence is causing both depression and atheism. Though again, I haven't any idea whether that's actually the case or not and I have yet to read the study you've linked to. I'll give it a look and I might post again.

It could have something to do with that fact that when you understand reality and uncover the truth about it, you notice how cold and hard it is. The truth often is cold and hard and lies tend to be reassuring, pleasant, desirable ect,ect.
That's just my thought on the matter.

[Taqiyya Mockingbird]

I think it also has something to do no inherent meaning in an atheist's life. An atheist has to struggle with the question, 'does my life have a meaning?' while the theist get's to jumpn right to 'what is the meaning of my life, as dictated by god?'

I am not sure about this condlstruct of "inherent meaning". It seems to me to be another theist mental trap. I find plenty of what could be termed as mraning in my life. Life is what one makes of it.

I enjoy living, and I would never consider suicide as a "way out" of hard times.

I am not even sure about it for myself in the context of euthanasia. I like being alive too much ...

[znk666]

It's more logical for a Christian to commit suicide,considering they expect that there's a blissful afterlife.

[WhatIfGodWasJustAMyth]

I would assume that it would actually be less, the thought of just not existing can be more scary than the thought of hell.

[Adjusted Sanity]

It's more logical for a Christian to commit suicide,considering they expect that there's a blissful afterlife.

Isn't suicide a sin?

[frankiej]

It's more logical for a Christian to commit suicide,considering they expect that there's a blissful afterlife.

Isn't suicide a sin?

Yeah, it is, but as you bleed to death from your wrists or as you plummet to the ground you could ask for forgiveness from the big JC.

[Ace Otana]

It's more logical for a Christian to commit suicide,considering they expect that there's a blissful afterlife.

Isn't suicide a sin?

It is apparently. If I'm not mistaken, if you commit suicide, you forfeit heaven.

However there is a way around it -

[Annik]

I had more suicidal tendencies when I at my theistic peak than I do today, almost a year after my deconversion. Not that I'm saying if I am typical or atypical, just sharing some personal experience.

[Skepsis]

It's more logical for a Christian to commit suicide,considering they expect that there's a blissful afterlife.

Isn't suicide a sin?

In some, rather, most denominations of xtianity, suicide is a sin that will provide you a one-way ticket to hell. The religions and denominations that don't consider it a sin generally look down on the practice as the "ending of a life ordained by God as God's child", or something like the destruction of "God's temple".
I don't see religious people killing themselves as much as the nonreligious, but, as a wise man was once paraphrased, that "isn't any more to to the point than the fact that the intoxicated are more happy than the sober".