Xian Suicides:

[RachelSkates]

Void left a very interesting post which said that Xist subservience is self-worth suicide. For a moment,I thought he said,

" All the subservience is worth suicide....."

Made me think of the xers I know who have killed themselves:

1. My best friend, feeling condemned on every single turn.
2. a pastor, who was abused by another pastor when he was young.
3. a sensitive young man who was a promising violin player
4. an older man who was in fear of god and became unstable.
5. a young victim of a priest

That's only five.

Not to mention those who have starved to death and not to mention those of other faiths who actually do it as a part of their faith!

So, I am wondering if this is a trend. Has anyone else known Xer suicides (or other faiths) and by that I do not mean Xers who kill themselves because of other reasons, but because their faith drove them to it.

I am not being macabre. I miss my best friend dearly and will never get over how he suffered because of religion. I really want to know if Xism is MORE likely to make people crazy or less, as they claim. They claim it makes you happy, I see it makes people unstable, self loathing, sad, and desperate enough to put a hole in their chest!!!!!

[DeistPaladin]

So, I am wondering if this is a trend. Has anyone else known Xer suicides (or other faiths) and by that I do not mean Xers who kill themselves because of other reasons, but because their faith drove them to it.

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss.

By "Xer", I assume you mean Christian (X being Christ)?

I've managed to somehow avoid making too many religious friends, even here in a "red State" part of America. The ones I've known do seem less happy and more unstable. Whether this is because unhappy, unstable people are attracted to religion or if religion makes them less happy or unstable, I'm not completely sure. I lean toward the latter conclusion.

I did have one friend from college who was devoutly religious. He was educated and knew all the same things I knew about the Bible, yet clung to his faith because it "provided him comfort". In retrospect, he was always immature, probably stemming from being abandoned by his parents and raised by grandparents. Jesus was probably a substitute father and his beliefs enabled him to avoid taking any responsibility for his life. I watched him deteriorate over the years. I tried to offer him advice but he'd never listen (disclosure: I admit here that I'm a recovering rescue-holic). Eventually, he fell into what seemed to me to be a severe case of narcissistic personality disorder.

Did his faith contribute to his spiritual (I use the term with irony) downfall? Was it part of his downward spiral?

I can also say the most emotionally stable, mature, happy and trustworthy friends I have are atheists or other freethinkers.

[The Omnissiunt One]

One of my friends has a very religious family, and, whilst he's religious, he's more sceptical I think. He is, though, a bit of a nutter, and used to be really screwed up, though he's got better. Mind you, I'm not sure that's to do with his religion, rather than just his parents' nuttiness...

[AnunZi]

First off, I'm truly sorry to hear about your friend. Loosing someone you care about is always difficult. My condolences.

I really want to know if Xism is MORE likely to make people crazy or less, as they claim. They claim it makes you happy, I see it makes people unstable, self loathing, sad, and desperate enough to put a hole in their chest!!!!!

This is a fascinating question.

Firstly, what is crazy? To me most devoutly religious people are crazy by MY definition. They believe in something simply on blind faith with absolutely zero corroborating evidence. That kind of faith is something I have a great deal of difficulty understanding.
On the flip side, I would appear crazy to you common or garden fundie. I think the idea of the Sky Daddy™ is ridiculous.
So I guess “Crazy” is a matter of perspective.

Secondly. I know how guilt affects me in regards to self loathing. I’ve done things in my life that I hate myself for. I wish I could go back and change some of the things I’ve done. From this I imagine that for the devout its even worse. They have there own guilt in there heads, but they also have the “knowledge” ( I use the term in its loosest possible sense) that their god knows what they have done, has seen what they have done and they must repent. Perhaps it just gets to a point where their guilt out ways the natural fear of death and they decide it would be better in heaven?
Couple that with the whole xitain thing with “the fall of mankind” and we are stepped in guilt the moment we are born. So it’s more or less an up hill battle from day one.

Maybe its just having a world view founded on pure fantasy makes dealing with reality difficult for some people.

[RachelSkates]

Thank you ,Anun.Trying to get free of it all is not easy.

You said, "Maybe its just having a world view founded on pure fantasy makes dealing with reality difficult for some people."

Wow that hits it on the head. People really NEED to have a world view founded on pure fantasy. I try to go back and see where it started, but so many texts are written from Xer beliefs, even if they are not believed. A lot of history was written that way, slanted. Thank Dog that new historians try very hard to avoid that bias, but it's been based on so much bias.

I assume we do have "God Gene" as Dean Hamer supposes:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=TmR6uAAH...&q&f=false


But he makes it clear it is not leading us to "god" but it is that feeling you get when you seen the Grand Canyon. An Atheist goes and say,"SHIT!" and gets a really amazing feeling. A theophile goes and says, "Praise GOd who made such beauty."

The gene causes the emotion, we provide the interpretation.

So I think that feeling is what causes people to want something more than is seen. It's a very big feeling, too big to thinkit is meaningless (which it is).

THe human body laid out is about 56,000 miles long!! That also seems to be too big to be meaningless, but it is meaningless.

[AnunZi]

I assume we do have "God Gene" as Dean Hamer supposes:

I think one of the best descriptions I've ever read for the creation of religion was written by on of my favorite author, Mr. T Prattchet.

I'm paraphrasing a bit here as i cant remember the quote exactly...

"Religion is born in deserts and the high countries. When man looks up and see's the infinite blackness space stretching away above his head he has the overwhelming urge to put someone in the way"


Sums it up rather well