Unfortunately the atheists will have to kill themselves to prove the point

[Faith No More]

I too have made several attempts on my own life, for deeply personal reasons none of which have to do with atheism. The attempts have ranged from alcohol assisted overdose to slitting my wrists with broken glass and all of them were deadly serious, not cries for help or any such thing. It could be argued that if I were truly serious then I would have succeeded, but that doesn't take into account quite how surprisingly difficult it is to make a person die. My excuses, if that's what zero-minded twats wish to call them, mainly centre around consideration for whoever finds my body; I wouldn't want 'my' day to poison, say, xmas or a person's birthday. Neither am I going to promise that I'm never going to try again.

However, I am reminded of a piece of advice I was given by a good friend on another forum, who supported my right to exit the game without actually endorsing it: never follow any advice that doesn't feel right - including this.

Hope I haven't hurt or shocked anyone too much.

As someone that has discovered a friend's body after his suicide, I can tell you that it is life-altering and deeply emotionally scarring. That day has been burned into my mind, and the images of his fresh corpse still haunt me eleven years later. Just saving someone from having to experience that is reason enough not to take your own life.

Of course, I harbor no ill will towards my friend, seeing how I had tried to end my own life two year previously. I understand and sympathize with his plight and realize that is an act of desperation, not selfishness. I have accepted his death and the choice he made, but that has done very little to soften the blow of the trauma I experienced.

My inital reaction when hearing someone using suicide as a tool to make a religious point is blinding rage, but once that wears off, I just feel disgust and pity. To think that someone is so callous and sheltered to have lived a life where they think this is a subject that is proper to use to make a religious point saddens me, but after my experience with my mental issues, I have come to expect nothing less from the human race. I would wish that people that speak so callously about such issues would experience it for themselves in order to gain some perspective, but I cannot in good conscience wish such suffering even on my worst enemy. Instead, I only wish people could show a little more compassion towrds the subject.