I’m not Christian or anything, but i still fear the possibility of going to hell if i kill myself. I have chronic pain, severe depression, anxiety, and PTSD due to an abusive childhood. I’m ready to die, but this dumb fear is holding me back and i don’t know how to get over it. I’m suffering and i just want to be free. Does anyone have any advice at all? :/
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It seems that maybe you’re not completely sold on the idea that there isn’t a God. I mean, not 100% sure that there isn’t one. And if you even have the slightest doubt about something like this, it’s not worth the risk, right? Well, that’s still not a good enough reason to keep on living in my opinion. If you have to find a reason to keep on living don’t let it be out of fear. Since you do have a fear that there is an afterlife, then maybe you’re not entirely sure of what you believe. While I’m sure a lot of people can live with the uncertainty of whether or not there is a divine power, I personally cannot, and I think it might benefit you to abandon this uncertainty as well. My advice is to just sit for a little while and really decide within yourself whether you believe in such a thing or not. Or talk it out with people you trust. And really come to a concrete conclusion. I think I did the other day, and I feel a bit better for it.
Of course I will not advocate suicide. That’s the opposite of what this website is for. But maybe if you are able to overcome your fear of the afterlife, this will open you up to new reasons to keep on living, if you know what I mean. Instead of using that as your reason to not kill yourself, look for different, positive reasons. And it would make sense that once you’re more firm in what your beliefs are, (or aren’t), life might become a little bit easier in a way.
I have no idea what your suffering is like, and I’m sorry you have to endure it. But if you look hard enough and wait long enough, I hope you’ll find a reason to endure it.
You’re basically asking for somebody to assure you that you’ll be fine after you kill yourself, either because the afterlife is good for suicides, or doesn’t exist. Nobody can do this. Even if you trust the near-death experiences from people who attempted suicide, or the experiences of people who have done various psychedelic drugs, it is a very mixed bag. There’s a common experience of God, and experiences of both good and bad afterlives.
I tend to believe that the afterlife is fair, and that the vast majority of suicides cause massive pain to those left behind (even if many would-be suicides can’t see it), so most suicides get bad afterlives in response. It may not seem fair to be here and be hurting in the first place, but that’s what we have to deal with.
I do agree that it’s better to live for positive reasons (things you want to make happen) than for negative reasons (things you want to make *not* happen). But if not wanting to suffer after death is what’s keeping you here, well, that’s a foundation.
I hope this all untangles for you soon.
Blub, this is a good post: even the surest atheist doesn’t know if things will be better after one dies. IF nothing else, we know that those who loved the successful suicide will hurt…and hurt badly, for the rest of their lives. It’s worth thinking about.
There are two ways to get around it: if you’re inclined this way, you can think of how unlikely it is that any immortal soul or spirit exists at all. Not only do we see from neurology that the mind isn’t independent of the brain, we also see from strokes, severing the corpus callosum, and other brain changes and injuries that there is no such thing as an individual identity. If you show a person who has just had a stroke and is partially paralyzed their left arm, for example, they will often deny it’s theirs at all. Our brain invents a sense of unified identity, but damage can disrupt these associations and even make us deny our own bodies. With so much evidence that identity and personality are dependent on the brain, I find it beyond belief to think that any part of my personality will survive my death.
The other way to think of this is to recall that the idea that suicide is a ‘sin’ is not inherent to Christian doctrine, but arose out of St. Augustine’s 5th century philosophy, which is rooted in Greek thought. Augustine was concerned with challenging the Donatists. If there is a God, we can’t know how He regards suicide, or if He cares at all. My own thought is that if there’s a God who can look down and see how much people like you and I suffer and feel no compassion, then I’m dealing with a cosmic sadist and I’m screwed either way.
Perhaps if you’re thinking this way, it’s because you’re fundamentally on the fence about whether you want to kill yourself. If you’re not committed to the idea, it’s probably best to not try. It seems obvious to say it, but suicide is dangerous. The most effective means are often ones that leave you damaged if you don’t succeed, so if you’re at all doubtful you should wait rather than do a half-hearted attempt that leaves you alive but even worse off.
When you’re dead you’re dead-just like animals. Anyone who claims to know about an afterlife is either crazy, full of shit or a liar. It’s time we leave our stupid god mythologies in the past.
There is no scientific evidence whatsoever of an afterlife, higher dimensions and so forth. All these superstitions were invented by people from the Bronze Age and earlier who had no scientific understanding of the universe…remember these same retards told us the earth is flat and the center of the universe and so forth.
So don’t let the fear of the afterlife deter you-not that I’m encouraging suicide or anything. But there are some people who are better off not being alive-I count myself in that, but I’m sticking around for a little while longer to see if my life gets any better.
Let me add, do you remember where you were before you were born? You didn’t exist for billions of years and when you’re gone, you won’t exist ever again for billions of years….unless you believe in reincarnation, another non-scientific idea.
The only reason you’re conscious and can think is because you’re a living biological entity. Once those brain cells die, so will you. You are nothing more than your brain and body-period. There is no soul that leaves you-it’s nonsense invented once again by non-scientists. So you don’t need to fear the afterlife, it’ll be like a dreamless sleep-where you didn’t know you existed until you woke up the next day.
So, the nontheists have a portion of post-Enlightenment history, and the theists have all the rest. Why are you so quick to dismiss so much of the human experience? Is it simply recentism – the fact that *you* were born into materialism and the scientific method? Have you considered that non-scientific evidence can still be evidence, even if you can’t reproduce it or share it?
Fact is, you won’t believe it until it happens to you, and it won’t happen to you as long as your worldview forbids it. But hear me: your surety does not make you right.
Science (from Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge”)
All evidence is knowledge giving and therefore by it’s very definition “scientific”. To say there is “non-scientific evidence” is to say there is “Non-Knowledge knowledge” … it just doesn’t make sense. That said, I “get” your point that there can be evidence that has not been tested, repeated and/or independently verified … in other words it’s not OBJECTIVE evidence – it’s anecdotal. The non theist “worldview” does not “forbid” accepting anecdotal evidence, it just doesn’t value it very highly. In fact, non theists, atheist and science communities are wide open to hearing and studying any/all claims regarding gods/supernatural events and they are also open to modifying how these things are viewed as long as there is ANY evidence that can be verified/tested/repeated … without doing these test, how can we verify ANY random claim for anything?
No one says (or at least they shouldn’t) there are not and cannot be gods and/or supernatural afterlives – there’s simply no verifiable evidence to support these things other than old scriptures (that don’t agree) and someone’s “say so”. We simply do not know – and we have not found a way TO know, but it seems conspicuously telling that the people who would benefit the most from evidence of these things can’t seem to find anything at all beyond “Because I say so” … the day evidence for god or afterlife can be demonstrated is the day science accepts it as fact … now I ask you, if the god that is proven to be turns out to a god other than the one you’ve believed for your entire life is proven to exist, will you immediately change to worship/follow that god? this is the great difference between science and religion … science only goes where the evidence leads, religion will only believe what their religion requires DESPITE any evidence to the contrary. If Allah was proven true tomorrow, millions of Christians would soundly REJECT that god without hesitation – science, on the other hand, would immediately accept the fact as true and begin investigating the properties and action of this god.
FYI – the universe cannot be “reproduced” yet here it is and is widely accepted as fact 😉
godless dawg
Reasonable and rational analysis of the evidence. Ask the questions that are the foundation of you “fear” then see if the evidence supports the hypothesis that there is something tangible to actually fear. Most references to an “afterlife” come from interpretations of “holy” scriptures … research how those “holy” scriptures came to become “holy” … find this and you’ll find the whole concept of gods, heavens hells devils etc. are man made. So what you “fear” is an attempt by man to control other men and manipulate them to their will. It’s worth the time and effort to understand how the bible came to be and how and why certain books/letters were chosen as canon whole others were rejected (Spoiler alert: god had no say in the creation of the bible)
sciatica dawg