Is suicide a lesser sin than murder?

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My own experiences...

When I threatened to commit suicide, people reacted with nice, soothing words like "Your life is priceless, don't throw it away." There are various helplines, like SOS, where volunteers will counsel those who are feeling suicidal. When there are news reports on suicide, most netizens make comments like "Rest in peace, dear." and "I hope that you'll enjoy a better life after reincarnation."

When I threatened to commit murder, people reacted with anger and disgust. "What?! You need to be locked up in the mental hospital! You need to be drugged! You need handcuffs! Aren't you scared of breaking the law? You wanna get raped in prison?" When there are news reports on murder, even if the victim deserved to die, most netizens make comments like "May the murderer rot in Hell."

Both murder and suicide involve taking lives away, so I don't understand why suicide is regarded as the lesser sin.

its your life, your making the choice for yourself. you are not killing someone who wants to live.

Sin doesn't exist. For sin to exist a god needs to exist and clearly a god does not exist. Since there is no god, sin is merely a fabrication of sterile minds.

All sins are equally nasty, but suicide is actually the BIGGER sin.
With murder you will get punished in this life and still have a chance to repent.
With suicide you murder yourself with no chance to repent and will be punished eternally.

People just react differently because suicide results from despair while murder is a repulsive symptom of extreme hate.

Well, now you've done it. You used the word "sin" to describe an action and now all the Wrongplanet atheists are gonna come out to tell how there's no God and anyone who thinks so is a delusional idiot.

But to answer your question, in the eyes of the church (Catholic church, anyways) suicide and murder are essentially the same thing. In the eyes of PEOPLE, though, it's different. Suicide is a result of depression and sadness, and is to be pitied. But murder is a result of anger, hatred, jealousy or malice, and is NOT viewed sympathetically.

Whenever I talk about suicide, I get "stop attention-seeking" type responses. On this forum at least.

Murder, as others have stated, takes other peoples' lives against their will, so it's worse.

Personally, I do not view suicide as a sin. If a person does not wish to continue their own life, why should it be anyone else's business to judge them for it? People who think like that do not understand what the other person is going through. It's a sign of ignorance.

Seriously. First off cut this sin crap. Second - now should I kill you or kill myself?
In our freakshow society people have no right to die apparently. My life, my property. Your life - not my property.
Even in capitalistic lands this is still not resolved.

Probably many people will try to calm you down and want you to think it over. They would ask you to look at your problems from a different angle and perhaps would even offer help -- that's a CHANCE, dude. But the one you are going to kill has NO CHANCE.

However, if someone would tell me they want to commit suicide, my answer would be a straight "Good Luck". Unless a person is suffering from an incurable disease and all they have to expect is pain and torture, in which case i would of course advocate euthanasia, suicide is for the weak, who are unable to cope with life anyway. In their suicide i can see no loss.

Suicide implies and actually requires consent to die. Murder does not imply nor require the consent of the murdered person to die.

Well, unless you are Jack Kevorkian that is. They still got him for murder, although I think they should have charged him with something lesser.

i think murder is lower down on the morality scale. do anything seen as negative to someone else is worse than doing it to yourself. something to do with autonomy. maybe in religion suicide is seen as more sinful (is it?) but when it comes to natural law most would say murder is worse

According to Christian doctrine:

1. If by "sin" you mean an affront to God, then both suicide and murder are equally sinful.

2. However, murdering someone else give you the opportunity to confess your sin, repent of it, and ask God to forgive you.

3. With suicide, there is no such opportunity - there is no chance for repentance after death.

But if you are Muslim, then suicide will earn you 70 virgins in Paradise, as long as you kill a few infidels at the same time.

Why the hell would anyone want to worship a god who dooms people who simply had too much to handle to eternal punishment because they got to the point where suicide seemed to be the only way to kill the pain? that is my question......glad I don't belive in sin not that I am planning a suicide attempt but I think that is a horrible thing to belive.

Media seldom report on suicides because when they have in the past, it has had a 'copy cat' effect. There have been psychological studies on this and plenty of supporting evidence.

There are resources out there for anybody who wants to 'Exit'. Remember, something like this needs planning, and you should allow yourself a 'cool off period' as going at it based on fluctuating emotions is likely to end in a failed attempt and you having yourself hospitalized and on 'suicide watch'.

I disagree with people going on about it being a sin. No where is it mentioned in the bible that it is a sin, but then again, can you get your morals from a book which condones slavery and child sacrifice? Morality isn't something you can reach by reading some text, you have to get there by yourself.

+1 on Sweetleafs post.

Even though I disagree that sin is anything other than a man-made construct I'll still have a go at answering the original question: Is suicide a lesser sin than murder?.

It all depends on who you ask and which denomination they are. If you ask a Catholic, they believe in venial sins and mortal sins. Suicide is a mortal sin for the Catholic. If you ask a protestant, you'll likely get the answer that all sins are equally wicked in the eyes of God. So, even the Jesus lovin' folks can't agree amongst themselves what it is.

I think from an evolutionary point of view it makes sense that religious memes that discourage suicide are more likely to not be selected against. If religion were to condone killing oneself because they believed that the afterlife was so much greater and that we have to shed out mortal skin to get there quickly, well, that religion probably wouldn't survive down the generations. Something to think about. In that context it makes sense that religion would evolve in such a way to make suicide an unforgivable (or at least a very grave matter).

I have a saying: "Life is a terminal illness. Death is the prognosis."

I don't believe in eternal punishment for sin, but as a former maltheistic Christian I used to believe that sin and virtue were irrelevant to whether you would go to heaven or hell, only your loyalty to God would matter. I believed that you could sin as much as you wanted to as long as you remained loyal to God and get into heaven and that no amount of virtue could get you into heaven if you weren't loyal to God. Christianity isn't about love or any other virtues, it's about power and loyalty alone. Love and other virtues are characteristics that anyone can possess and many Christians do possess them because it's human, and so is sin. It doesn't matter whether murder or suicide is morally worse. They both cause pain to people. The amount of pain caused by each one varies under different circumstances. The consequences for your actions is the future that you create for yourself and other people. The severity of the consequences determines how bad it is.

I would say it depends on who's getting murdered, but I'm not exactly considered a conventional thinker on this topic.