7th grader commits suicide after being told that he is going to Hell.

[Jehanne]

[Anomalocaris]

yea the silver lining is he evidently didn’t believe hell awaited him for being gay.    Or else he found hell preferable to living in a world with too many unmitigated christians.

[Jehanne]

Religious faith does do harm. And, yes, I am stating the obvious here; in any case, religious belief needs to go.

[Belacqua]

Every year the US has over 47,000 deaths counted as suicide. The number has been going down slightly among white people, but is going up among some minorities.

I'm sure this number is undercounted. There must be many many people who commit a sort of "passive suicide" by giving up on life. They stop taking their medicine and sit on the couch and watch TV and have no hope. Or they overdose on recreational drugs because they just don't care. Or they drive recklessly because they have no reason to live.

When we speak to another person we don't know really well, we have no idea what that person is going through. They may be on the edge. This is especially true of people on the Internet.

We can always find a reason to judge someone harshly and tell them they're bad. But anyone who utters a word or types a sentence with the intention of making someone else feel bad is a part of the problem.

[Jehanne]

We can always find a reason to judge someone harshly and tell them they're bad. But anyone who utters a word or types a sentence with the intention of making someone else feel bad is a part of the problem.

With respect to this situation, Professor Steven Weinberg was correct, "With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion."

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Back in 1970, a 19 year old kid at work killed himself. He drove his car to a National Park and took a hose ,attached it to the exhaust then into the car. I didn't really know him. He was younger than I and worked in a different section on a different floor. Yet I still felt I should have helped him in some way. His close work friends were devastated.

I can't imagine what his family must have gone through, for years.

Now, the gut wrenching tragedy of a 12 year old old killing himself. A child who could not fully understand the consequences of his actions. All he would have known is deep anguish which he didn't know how to escape. Nor could his age mates understand what they had done to him. They too will suffer guilt for many years.

This is heart breaking. Don't know what else to say

[Jehanne]

This is heart breaking. Don't know what else to say

The young man in question killed himself because Christians were taunting him with their nutty beliefs.

[Ferrocyanide]

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

[Ferrocyanide]