If you are someone who doesnt believe in God...?

Question

(specifically.....that you believe there is nothing after death, you just die)

How would you personally convince someone to not commit suicide?

I mean if life is just a matter of 60-80+ years (if you're lucky), we're all just random evolved organisms with little purpose beyond how we interact with other people for the brief time we're on earth, life is basically a crap shoot and ultimately you're just worm food anyway... What encouragement would you give a person that their LIFE is worth living?

You are trying to get someone from blowing their brains out....'make the best of it!' is the best you can do?

Put the gun down and listen to this song... (??)

according to your belief..they are just evolved organisms too who will die a couple years after you...so who cares if they hurt...they'll get over it right? life goes on...

Is arguing about the existence of God supposed to get the gun out of their mouth? Im asking YOU..what you would say...

Specially random, Capn? Specially pointless? Special in what way?

so...under the weight of whatever is driving a person to KILL themselves...telling them 'you'll miss the smell of flowers...and the opportunity to watch another random evolved life be born, and live the remaining 17 years of your finite life to the fullest under the same burden that drove them to suicide in the first place....' thats it huh?

Answer 1

You couldn't. Fortunately, God believes in us more than we are inclined to believe in him. A Christian woman was severely depressed and one night she resolved to take an overdose of pills. At her bedside were the pills. She reached out for them, but her hand touched her Bible, so she picked it up. It fell open at Ecclesiastes, and her eyes immediately focussed on the one verse that says, 'Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool - why die before your time?' (Ch 7 vs 17) She realised God was 'speaking' to her through this verse, and so was saved from suicide.

God says to his people, 'For I know the thoughts I have for you, thoughts of peace and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you, declares the Lord' (Jeremiah 29: 11-13).

Answer 2

Think of the world before you were born, conceived if you like, you did not exist, had no consciousness, were not part of the cosmos.

Then came the defining moment when you did exist, were conscious, became a being. Now the world is full and rich.

You have feelings, successes, failures, you can smell flowers, hear birds, watch sunlight on water, hear your first born, hold your grandchildren, tell them stories.

For this be grateful, for this wonderful opportunity be glad.

If you call this a crap shoot, well then question what your religious up-bringing has given your state of mind.

This is NOT a dress rehearsal, it is the real thing. You can't come back tomorrow and say 'Sorry I'll say that again'

So take it, embrace it, make the most of it, your wonderful singular life and be content that that is what it is, all it is and live it to the full.

Kind regards, a deeply committed atheist.

Answer 3

Let's turn the tables. If I'm going to kill myself, nobody is going to change my mind by either telling me (1) God loves me or (2) God will punish me.

You're assuming, as a lot of people do, that atheists are nihilists. Just because someone has put away a belief in having been created by some supernatural being, that doesn't mean they love, hurt, laugh, and cry any less than a believer does. I don't have to believe that some god put me here in order for my life to have purpose and meaning. I still have feelings. I still have empathy. That's the same regardless of whether you assume there's some kind of supernatural master plan behind life or not.

To me, the lack of belief in an afterlife makes this life all the more special, because this is all we've got. It would be silly to waste it.

THAT is how I would answer.

EDIT: DC, special just in the way I described it. Whether you believe a god created us or whether we're here only by chance, this life is still a brief but precious opportunity that one would be crazy to squander. DavidP below expresses the same point much more eloquently.

You're trying to put words in my mouth to make me fit the stereotype you obviously have of nonbelievers. I'm sorry that you can only seem to find meaning in life by holding on to religious myths. You need life to have been magically infused for it to hold meaning. I don't.

Answer 4

I have been fighting over this very same dilema myself. From time to time, I stop to think "Why am I doing all this?" ie. working, socializing, living.

I guess the driving force is finding the purpose of life itself. The very idea that I want to know why I am alive is the only reason that is keeping me alive.

Comitting suicide takes away this very opportunity to hunt for your own purpose in life. Will you regret when at the time of death, you found out that you could have done something meaningful? That you are more than just worm food? Or that the true meaning of your life would have been revealed to you the very moment after your death and you will never find out because you died one moment too early? Will you wish then, that you can reverse your action and not die? I say don't do it - nobody alive in this world knows what his/her life means (yet). That's why we're all living to find out.

NB: I refer to 'you' but not you directly, but to someone who has the thought of comitting suicide.

Answer 5

If the person really wanted to "blow their brains out" and didn't want to be convinced to live, I would let them be. I believe each person's life belongs to them and they can end it if they want to.
But I think your question is more along the lines of "what purpose does life have if we are just worm food in the end?" Think about it - even though you hope to go to heaven when you die (I am assuming you do) do you want to die now? No, you probably don't because you enjoy your life. You don't want it to end. Whether you are expecting something else when it's over or not doesn't matter - most people try to make the best of life and they enjoy it.

Answer 6

This is what convinced me: no matter what some well meaning preacher, shrink or friend ever told my family, they would blame themselves for not being able to predict/prevent my suicide; and it would screw them up inside. I love them; so I decided to try to pull it together and work harder on making sense of the crap that was my life for their sake.

You can't live your life for other people, you have to make your own decisions--but if guilt is the only life preserver your brain is offering you, I say take it.

Answer 7

I'd say, life can't beat you. You can only lose by forfeit. Don't you dare give up. Now hand it over, wimp. Next stop: counselling.

I don't see that the Christian view of things is any better, you know. You're all just waiting around to die so you can go to heaven, right?

Answer 8

but if you believe in afterlife - what's the point in living???

if a friend of mine wanted to commit a suicide I'd tell them that suicide is not the best way to go, problems come and go, bad times come and go, but there are always people who love you and care about you, and since this life is all we have - it's better to make the best out of it and not just give up

Answer 9

That fairly will depend on your definition of "well". Here is a functional set of "sure/no" inquiries to scan the validity of "well" in a man or woman's lifestyles. (Disclaimer: those are popular questions, and "you" is used within the popular experience): - Have you ever instructed a lie? (If so, that could make you a liar.) - Have you ever taken something that's now not rightfully yours to take? (If so, that could make you a thief.) - If you might have ever lied or in case you have ever stolen something, do YOU wish to be lied to, or have YOUR stuff stolen? (If you're responsible of both of those, however you do not wish to be the "sufferer", that's a double-general, and is known as "hypocrisy"). So a ways, in case you have had to confess guilt to those questions, that could make you a "mendacity, thieving hypocrite". Now upload to that: - Jesus stated that in case you have anger to your center toward one more man or woman, you are responsible of homicide. Are you? - Jesus stated that when you seem at one more man or woman with sexual ideas (i.e. lust), you are responsible of adultery. Are you? So, when you upload those 2 to the prior record, you emerge as a "mendacity, thieving, hypocritical, adulterous assassin." And if a man or woman is responsible of this and nonetheless thinks he's a "well man or woman", you could must upload "self-righteous" and "holier-than-thou" to the record, making you a "self-righteous, holier-than-thou hypocrite, who's a mendacity, thieving, adulterous assassin." I did not ask approximately such matters as envy, jealousy or greed, or unhealthy attitudes, irrelevant ideas, or egocentric causes. So, with this in brain, if you'll be able to honestly uncover any person who real IS a "well" man or woman (from God's standpoint), then they WOULD move to heaven. But you must fully grasp that God has a nil-tolerance coverage in opposition to sin, and lacking the mark is lacking the mark, whether or not by way of an inch or a mile - when you leave out heaven, you leave out heaven, so you continue to want Jesus even though you're near. N

Answer 10

I've nothing better to say to them other than I don't believe in suicide. You're right, I don't believe in any afterlife- if there's no afterlife, then you off yourself and it's all over. No friends, no family, no memories, no choir of angels. You're a messed up sack of meat with a bullet in its head.