NEWS: Religion Mitigates Suicide Risk

CULTURE: Religion Mitigates Suicide Risk

A study from Columbia University has found that members of an organized religion have significantly lower suicide rates than non-religious people.

The findings published in The American Journal of Psychiatry can be found in its entirety in PDF here.

Although the findings do suggest that those with religious affiliations have lower rates of suicide, it could also mean that those that are not religious may be suicidal because of organized religion.

Did they include 'cult' religions in their study? From the resultant statistics that just means that religious people that want to commit suicide are more successful.

This is a sort of "Well...duh!" kind of statistic. A religious person is likely to believe that there's some afterlife punishment for them if they kill themselves while an atheist is likely to see death as a punctuation mark on their existance...that the end of life means the end of any sort of awareness.

I'm sure passing all responsibility off onto deities does make for a much less stressfull life.

well I know if I kill myself, I will become a tree in the underworld and demons will rip branches off so I bleed. isn't that what Dante said?

I'm with Vanuslux on this one... Kool-Aid's ready!

I'm sure they didn't include the Jehovahs Witnesses. They have a higher rate of mental illness than the normal population. See link.

I really have to agree with the other posters saying that most western religions believe suicide is a sin and will be punished in the afterlife is the main reason most people of a western religion don't commit suicide.

It would be interesting if they broke it down by all religions from Catholics, to Protestants, to Buddhists, to Hindu's, etc... I would really like to see that.

actually the church does agree that suicides go to hell. that is true. but makes allowances in the case of the insane. or the "emotionally delicate". you will find this loophole in the islamic faith as well...

Right. Just like Christians don't masturbate, commit adultery or engage in homosexual relations.

Heaven forbid someone should show that -* gasp *- religion is actually a positive force in people's lives!

Sheesh.

for a non-catholic view you could say this;
every cell in your body wants to preserve itself. indeed all life rabidly fights to defend itself against death. the survival instinct is something we share with all other life--plant, animal, single celled, etc.
when you take your own life you go against the very order of the universe itself.
and what becomes of the energy that animates and binds you togeter?
thats for speculation...but i dont see how it can be positive.
(ive had three friends clip themselves. ive given this some thought.)

Suicide rates went down in war time, suh as WWII, but they go up under conservative government..

Perhaps what we all want in life is a sense of purpose and community. War and religion can create these things, whereas the selfish and materialistic values promoted by the right wing diminish these things.

Edited because I found some links to support my comments

[Edited on Dec 28, 2004 9:01PM]

Luckily so can porn, apparently.

But yeah - you're more on the mark here. Religion fills basic human psychological needs. Atheists are immediately at a disadvantage when it comes to having a well-rounded sense of well-being. We try to fix it by buying shit we don't need, fucking an awful lot, paying psychiatrists loads of money and swallowing loads of various drugs - but when it comes down to it there isn't a single unifying philosophy that really "works" in the same way that religion can.

I hope by 'we' you infer the majority and not the totality.

I agree with katiebarthedoor's initial estimation that perhaps for those that don't ascribe to religion perhaps the natural darwinian order is what guides the desire for life and continuance of it. I'm not sure I'd go far as to say that the commital of the suicidal act is natural selection at work though, but it does present a closed loop, provided it happens prior to initial procreation.

Atheism is the ultimate form of asceticism which is too much for some people to handle... so they shoot themselves in the face.

Damn it all. I'm such a fuck up. I don't shop, pursue sexual gratification, spew my froth at strangers, or delve into the pleasures of coke...anymore. I knew I fucked up this whole atheist bit somewhere. Damn it.


[Edited on Dec 28, 2004 4:23PM]

that is bullshit, Im much happier and more confident as an atheist than i was when i was trying to believe in a god because i thought that was what i was supposed to do.

ignorance is bliss

I have to disagree with you on this one.

Being an atheist maybe means it takes you a bit longer than most to find your center in life. But that's probably because you didn't buy the EZ Bake answer to all of life's existential questions.

In fact, I bet if you made it past age 35 without slitting your wrists on account of the soulcrushing emptiness of modern life, you're probably *really* well rounded and well in being.

I'm not an athiest nor an agnostic so obviously I think religion can be a good thing...otherwise I wouldn't be religious myself.

I just don't have to ram my beliefs down the throats of other or try to twist statistics into support for my beliefs. It's simple logic. Whether you believe it or not, fear of punishment is a large part of why strongly religious people don't do a lot of things they might otherwise do. There ARE people who abstain from masturbating because they're afraid they're going to burn in hell. There ARE people who crave same-sex loving who never allow themselves to indulge those desires because they think they'll go to hell. There ARE people who want to die but don't because they are afraid of waking up in a worse reality than the one they're in now.

And there are people who call themselves religious that do all of those things (even kill themselves). So saying that there are male Christians that suck dick doesn't disprove anything other than there are a lot of Christians that don't see same sex loving as wrong.

People are weird about this shit...ever hear a Christian with pierced ears admonish someone that piercings are a sin if they're not a woman's ears? I have...a lot. It seems to escape these people that the bible verse they reference doesn't make an exception for their fucking earings...they just see it differently because they see pierced ears as normal, therefore acceptable. Most Christians pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to believe. I've yet to see any who lived by every letter...that person would be so dysfunctional in this society that they'd be locked up.

Well, most religions have a scare-factor that I am sure exists in most religions. You kill yourself, you go to hell (I know Catholics used to not allow suicide's buried in catholic cemetaries).

But this study pertains to western populations, as I've read that in the 'developed' world, suicide rates are highest amongst the young, whereas in poorer places it's highest amongst older people tired of their lives.

And I suppose it depends why you killed yourself. If it is a suicide out of a fear of punishment (ie. killed your wife, and don't wanna go to jail) and your a believer, you won't escape your judgement.

I'm not particularily religious, more agnostic then anything. But I would be alot more suicidal if I felt death=lights out, the end, etc (atheist). The afterlife, even if it doesn't exist, makes my life more bearable, as a point to what seems pointless.

Anyone ever seen The Believer?

As well, this study doesn't include the religious who have homosexual attractions.

If I'm a Baptist, and I like other men, and the Baptist's say that God says I'm commiting behaviour that will end me in hell, and I believe those Baptist's and still like men (which will send me to hell), then who cares if I commit the sin of killing myself (I'm going to hell anyway).
And if I try to be a good christian and not wanna fuck men, why is God making it so hard on me by making fella's so attractive to me? Has he pre-reserved my place in hell by putting this 'sinful' sexual preference in me, or rejecting me as un-worthy by not helping me shed my attraction to men?

PLease...tell me why people spend money on stupid research like this? It's like funding a scientist who0 asks the question-Why do people die when a bowling ball hits their head from the height of 50 feet?

It certainly is...now you can go kill yourself you enlightened douche

its still a grey area today.
as far as contridictions in religions (why did God make me queer if he loves me etc.) yes there are contridictions. but there are contridictions with ALL earthly things. athiests dont believe in a creator but yet we where created.
my point is this god also gave us a brain. if some tambourine-shakin baptist said you cant be queer and love God you should be able to figure out for youself that hes a jaggoff.

*furiously stiffles laughter*

I agree, except that Penecostal's shake tambourines, not Baptist's. lol

And I figure that should someone commit suicide out of dispair, end their suffering, etc, and are able to go against the instinct of self-preservation, and All Merciful God that condemns the mentally ill would not be worthy of our admiration or worship.