Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site lasspvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!vax135!cornell!lasspvax!kevin From: kevin@lasspvax.UUCP (Kevin Saunders) Newsgroups: net.suicide Subject: Re: Why society - religions - oppose ... Message-ID: <170@lasspvax.UUCP> Date: Sun, 13-Jan-85 21:06:48 EST Article-I.D.: lasspvax.170 Posted: Sun Jan 13 21:06:48 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 01:33:35 EST References: <> Reply-To: kevin@lasspvax.UUCP (Kevin Saunders) Organization: Theory Center (Cornell University) Lines: 25 Summary: >I was wondering about society's motives to counter suicide: > Mike Cherepov I think the primary motive is an implied insult: the suicide implies that the life others are taking *so* seriously is not meaningful, or at least not worth suffering too much over. Another motive might be that society would lose too many valuable people if suicide were sanctioned--best to shame them in to hanging on and doing something *creative* with their misery, like, say, Dostoyevsky, or Kafka. At any rate, in order to succeed over time, a culture/religion will have to take the demands of reality seriously, and discourage members/adherents from taking off to the next world unless they're doing something worthwhile, like throwing themselves on the bayonets of the infidels. . . . Kevin Saunders lasspvax.kevin@cornell.arpa "The salmon was CANNED?!" "Well, I'm sorry, they were all out of fresh. . ."