Is it wrong to want to become totally nonexistant?

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Robert_Sock

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Sometimes I feel that way, especially when sick with something like the flu. Why people want to cling to this life even when they are suffering terribly, surprises me. What is it that makes people cling to this life?
 
watch the old-time Christmas movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” 🙂
 
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We don’t always want to “cling to this life”. I wanted to check out a lot of times. I stayed around primarily out of love of God (He says Suicide is bad) and love of my parents and a friend or two who would have been sad and hurt to see me go.

Some people have a great will to live because of other people whom they love. Others do not believe there is anything beyond this life, and still others just don’t feel ready to die. It’s instinctual to a degree. If the will to live wasn’t inborn to some extent, then many people who do not have some greater love of God or man to keep them here would take one look at the horrible conditions around them and exit the planet.
 
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We all feel that way, sometimes.
But it shouldn’t be a persistent feeling
 
Well, Robert,

Firstly, I’ve often felt like this when in the grip of a depressive episode, but there’s always a small glimmer of hope that tells me “this too shall pass”. And it does always pass.

Sometimes I look at my life and ask myself “is this all I have to look forward to?”, then I remember that I have eyes to see with, legs to walk on, arms and hands, sobriety and stability, a roof over my head, etc.

And, above all, a developing relationship with the God Who has kept me alive despite myself. I practice gratitude for whatever He has given me because He loves me no matter what.

I hope this helps you, my friend.

Stuart
 
Robert_Sock said:
Sometimes I feel that way, especially when sick with something like the flu. Why people want to cling to this life even when they are suffering terribly, surprises me. What is it that makes people cling to this life?
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It does seem to be wrong to have that desire which is contrary to the goal of Jesus Christ. See John 10
7 Jesus therefore said to them again: Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not. 9 I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved: and he shall go in, and go out, and shall find pastures. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly.
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There is much value in suffering, you see. And there is much value in suffering without getting bitter and sad.
I believe the idea of a purposelessness is considered sloth.
 
Wrong? Well it’s not if it’s because of a life complete in God and we’re just ready to be with Him. Like St. Paul expressed.
I think the conviction that ending one’s own life won’t result in the happiness we are seeking is what keeps
people of faith from completing the act. That need, to be happy permeates our every act.

This is God’s homing becon since in Him we find ultimate happiness.

Isn’t that what we are trying to find in our every act.? The one and only thing we have to find happiness is our body.

When we committ suicide, even then, we do it because we think it will make us happy. But what we are doing is destroying the only means to find it.
 
no one “got” my “It’s a Wonderful Life” reference

my basic point is; and i guess i should’ve expressed it directly

had you had never existed, the circumstances with regard to your family & friends would be very different; most likely for the worse

God gives us approximately 1/3 of our lives in oblivion; ie sleep

the rest of the 2/3 time; just try your best

say a rosary; that will kill about 25 minutes or so of the time you wished you “didn’t exist”
 
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Good point.

Also, philosophically, our minds can’t grasp nonexistence. We can’t desire something we can’t know.
 
Ii don’t think this feeling is unusual during times of illness and suffering. I’ve had some bad nausea this year where I have just thought “ugh kill me now”. It’s a problem when you feel that way all the time but I would argue it’s more of a mental health issue than a sin.
 
In passing, probably not. It sounds like a natural response to stress. I do think it would be wrong to commit to those feelings though.

Someone with a clear mind and who loves God will certainly deny such a feeling upon adequate reflection. The mind is likely not so clear when feelings like this pop up.
 
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Robert_Sock said:
What is it that makes people cling to this life?
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I often wonder that as well. I’ve never been afraid of death and cannot wait until I can come “home.” Most of my family dies young (in 50’s) and so I was never raised feeling that we must live as long as possible. We were also raised that the next life is so much better than this. I yearn for the next life daily, but also know that God put me here for a reason and I have to live it out. Sometimes I wonder why I’m here and would rather go to be with my deceased relatives and Jesus.

Clinging to life is probably a biological reaction more than anything.
 
There is only one time in my life that I ever wished for death and that was on a Christmas day about 25 years ago. I had the flu and full on double pneumonia. I had to stay home from the family Christmas celebrations. I felt so bad I hoped I would die. Fortunately, the meds kicked in and I got better.

But other than that, no matter how bad things got, I have always felt it is better to be alive. That is not a comment on the afterlife. I figure I have all eternity to enjoy that. God put me here for a purpose and only for a short while. I figure I am supposed to make the best of it and fulfil that purpose.

For those people who say they want to “get home” quicker, have you gotten a dangerous job, moved to a crime-ridden neighborhood, bought an old car to drive everyday and taken up smoking? If not, I think you’re not all that serious about it! 🤣
 
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brian_custer said:
no one “got” my “It’s a Wonderful Life” reference

my basic point is; and i guess i should’ve expressed it directly

had you had never existed, the circumstances with regard to your family & friends would be very different; most likely for the worse
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“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a great and uplifting movie, but let’s not forget it is fiction.

There are plenty of people out there living in a living hell whose “better circumstances” may be years in the future, or whose loved ones like family and friends may all be dead, or who are suffering from some very serious illness that is just going to get worse and cause more suffering over the long term.

There are plenty of people who do not have 100 friends like George Bailey, whose demise might not even be noticed if they died tomorrow.

Even if you do not have 100 friends, or any friends or family alive, even if your whole life looks like it has been nothing but a mess from day 1, your life is still valuable to God and you should not end it, but the trick is convincing people of their worth in such situations, or strengthening them to go through some very, very, very bad times. George Bailey slowly dying of cancer with horrible symptoms would have been a very different movie…probably made by Paul Thomas Anderson (<—I’m not a fan, I preferred his father Ernie’s work).
 
“Robert_Sock1
Sometimes I feel that way, especially when sick with something like the flu. Why people want to cling to this life even when they are suffering terribly, surprises me. What is it that makes people cling to this life?”

CCC 364 The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.
 
Freud talks about a death instinct, but it seems to me to be a life instinct.

I’m not depressed or anything and I feel rather calm and peaceful being religious, but it’s amazing to me how people have such a strong desire to cling to this life, especially atheists. We are all basically thrown into this life without knowing its meaning. Even the religious do not really know why we are here, except that they have a rather blind faith that God exists and that this life somehow has a purpose that we are yet to be fully aware of.

Like ants or bees, we too instinctively work together to build this world up without a clear conscious reason as to why!
"It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unaware of the tragedy.

Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives.

"Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because they have no standard outside of themselves by which to measure their times. If there is no fixed concept of justice, how shall men know it is violated?

Only those who live by faith really know what is happening in the world; the great masses without faith are unconscious of the destructive processes going on, because they have lost the vision of the heights from which they have fallen."

Archbishop Fulton Sheen
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Robert_Sock said:
it’s amazing to me how people have such a strong desire to cling to this life, especially atheists.
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I would think atheists would have the strongest motives to stay alive and try to accomplish something good on earth, because they do not believe anything else after this life exists.

Those who wish to die often think they are going on to something better, more peaceful etc.

Those who do not believe in anything after death have zero motivation to die. Their death leads nowhere and has no meaning.
 
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