Atheism and suicide

Atheists have a higher suicide rate than the religious.[1]

Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California (which was the first secular studies university department[2]). He specialization is in the sociology of secularity.

The website Adherents.com reported concerning atheism and suicide:

“  |  Pitzer College sociologist Phil Zuckerman compiled country-by-country survey, polling and census numbers relating to atheism, agnosticism, disbelief in God and people who state they are non-religious or have no religious preference. These data were published in the chapter titled "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns" in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005). In examining various indicators of societal health, Zuckerman concludes about suicide:

"Concerning suicide rates, this is the one indicator of societal health in which religious nations fare much better than secular nations. According to the 2003 World Health Organization's report on international male suicides rates (which compared 100 countries), of the top ten nations with the highest male suicide rates, all but one (Sri Lanka) are strongly irreligious nations with high levels of atheism. It is interesting to note, however, that of the top remaining nine nations leading the world in male suicide rates, all are former Soviet/Communist nations, such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia. Of the bottom ten nations with the lowest male suicide rates, all are highly religious nations with statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism."[3]

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Concerning atheism and depression, a University of Michigan study involving 19,775 individuals found that religious people are less likely than atheists to suffer depression when they are lonely.[4]

See also:

* Atheism and loneliness

* Atheism and emotional intelligence

* Atheism and social skills

## Contents

* 1 Atheism, suicide and loneliness
* 2 Atheism, suicide and marriage
* 3 Atheism, suicide and gender
* 4 Ex-Christians, self-esteem and suicide
* 5 Hopelessness of atheism
* 6 Atheism, depression, suicide and dopamine levels in the brain
* 7 Atheism, uncharitableness and depression
* 8 Many atheists are reluctant to admit the suicide problem in the atheist population
* 9 Atheism and European suicide in the 17th century
* 10 Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion and the death of Jesse Kilgore
* 11 Suicide of atheist Anthony Bourdain
* 12 Atheism and suicide: Atheism contrasted with Christianity
* 13 Solution to atheism and suicide
* 14 See also
* 15 External links
* 16 Notes

## Atheism, suicide and loneliness[edit]

The Rev. Dr. Robert Stuart MacArthur was an early proponent of atheism being a causal factor for suicide.[5]

See also: Atheism and loneliness

Loneliness is a major risk factor for suicidal thoughts.[6][7] In many atheistic cultures in the developed world, there are considerable problems with loneliness (see: Atheism and loneliness). Furthermore, many atheists feel isolated within theistic cultures (see: Atheism and social outcasts).

Although there are recent studies relating to atheism being a causal factor for suicide, an early proponent of atheism being a causal factor for suicide was the Reverend Dr. Robert Stuart MacArthur.[8]

In 1894, the NY Times declared regarding atheism and suicide: "Dr. Martin urged that a great cause of suicide was atheism. It was, he said, a remarkable fact that where atheism prevailed most, there suicides were most numerous. In Paris, a recent census showed one suicide to every 2,700 of the population."[9]

The same NY Times article quotes the Reverend Dr. MacArthur describing suicide in the following manner: "It is mean and not manly; it is dastardly and not daring. A man who involves his innocent wife and children in financial disaster and disgrace and takes his life and leaves them to bear the burden he was unwilling to bear, is a coward."[10]

## Atheism, suicide and marriage[edit]

See also: Atheism and marriage and Atheism, marriage and suicide

Christian apologist Michael Caputo wrote: "Recently the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has published its mammoth study on Religion in America based on 35,000 interviews... According to the Pew Forum a whopping 37% of atheists never marry as opposed to 19% of the American population, 17% of Protestants and 17% of Catholics."[11] See also: Atheism and marriage

According to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) over 50% of all atheists and agnostics don’t get married.[12] The fertility rate is significantly lower in the atheist population (see: Atheism and fertility rates).

According the website Marriage and Family Encyclopedia: "Marital status has a strong association with rates of completed suicide. Suicide rates are higher in the divorced and widowed than in single people, who in turn have higher suicide rates than married people. This protective effect of marriage on suicide is stronger for men than for women, although it is found for both men and women (Gove 1972)."[13]

## Atheism, suicide and gender[edit]

See also: Atheism, gender and suicide and Atheism appears to be significantly less appealing to women

Survey data and website tracking data of prominent atheists' websites indicate that in the Western World, atheism appears to be significantly less appealing to women (see: Atheism appears to be significantly less appealing to women).[14][15]

Science Daily reports:

“  |  Many studies have identified a strong link between suicide and diagnosable mental illness, especially depression. So because women suffer from depression at a much higher rate than men, they would seem to be at higher risk for suicide. But women actually commit suicide about one-fourth as often as men.[16] |  ”

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## Ex-Christians, self-esteem and suicide[edit]

See also: Ex-Christians, self-esteem and suicide and Atheism and depression and Atheism and self-esteem and Ex-atheists

Richard Dawkins

There are preliminary studies indicating that individuals who reject Christianity in Western cultures have lower self-esteem than the Christian population.[17][18] There are also studies indicating that lower self-esteem is associated with suicidality.[19]

Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" along with a community college biology class, have been linked to the tragic suicide of Jesse Kilgore.[20] Kilgore had several discussions with friends and relatives in which he made it clear Dawkins' book had destroyed his belief in God. This loss of faith is considered the cause of his suicide which is not surprising given that there is evidence which suggest that atheism can be a causal factor for suicide for some individuals.

Jesse's father is quoted as saying "If my son was a professing homosexual, and a professor challenged him to read [a book called] 'Preventing Homosexuality'… If my son was gay and [the book] made him feel bad, hopeless, and he killed himself, and that came out in the press, there would be an outcry. He would have been a victim of a hate crime and the professor would have been forced to undergo sensitivity training, and there may have even been a wrongful death lawsuit. But because he's a Christian, I don't even get a return telephone call."

Jesse's blog remains online after his death.[21]

## Hopelessness of atheism[edit]

See also: Hopelessness of atheism and Atheism, agnosticism and pessimism

An essay by the Christian apologist Dr. James Spiegel describes Bertrand Russell as a "misogynistic and a serial adulterer; a chronic seducer of women, especially very young women, even in his old age."[22] See also: Atheism and morality

On March 8, 2013, Damon Linker wrote in The Week:

“  |  If atheism is true, it is far from being good news. Learning that we're alone in the universe, that no one hears or answers our prayers, that humanity is entirely the product of random events, that we have no more intrinsic dignity than non-human and even non-animate clumps of matter, that we face certain annihilation in death, that our sufferings are ultimately pointless, that our lives and loves do not at all matter in a larger sense, that those who commit horrific evils and elude human punishment get away with their crimes scot free — all of this (and much more) is utterly tragic.[23] |  ”

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Although Bertrand Russell was an agnostic, he had favorable views of atheism.[24] Bertrand Russell wrote in 1903 about entropy and the universe:

“  |  That man is the product of causes that had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins- all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.

"Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding dispair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built." [25]

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## Atheism, depression, suicide and dopamine levels in the brain[edit]

See also: Atheism and motivation and Atheism and the brain

Brain researchers have conducted a number of studies focusing on the differences between atheists and the religious. See: Atheism and the brain

According to Scientific American: "Research also suggests that a religious brain exhibits higher levels of dopamine, a hormone associated with increased attention and motivation."[26] See also: Atheism and motivation and Atheism and the brain

In addition, according to Scientific American:

“  |  While you often hear about serotonin in studies of depression (serotonin is, after all, a target of many current antidepressants), there are many other neurotransmitters and systems that are also under investigation, and many of them are bearing some fruitful results. Ketamine, for example. And of course there is the role of dopamine.

We usually think of dopamine linked more with things like reward or drug-addiction, but what dopamine actually does is more complex than that. Dopamine is involved in movement, for example, but it is also involved in, for lack of a better word, "motivated behavior". I often think of dopamine in terms of "salience", helping to determine how relevant something is to your interests, which encompasses motivated behaviors for food, sex, drugs, etc.

And dopamine could also be important in major depressive disorder. People with depression often exhibit reduced motivation, anhedonia (a decrease in pleasure from usually enjoyed things), sometimes motor decreases as well. All of these are linked with dopamine. So targeting the dopamine system is one of the ways in which we can look at potential mechanisms and treatments for depressive behaviors.[27]

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For more information, please see: Atheism, depression, suicide and dopamine levels in the brain

## Atheism, uncharitableness and depression[edit]

See also: Atheism and depression and Atheism, uncharitableness and depression

Most atheists likely live in East Asia (see: Asian atheism).

A beggar in Cambodia. In Cambodia, the vast majority of the population adheres to a nontheistic form of Buddhism called the Theravada school of Buddhism.

A comprehensive study by Harvard University professor Robert Putnam found that religious people are more charitable than their irreligious counterparts.[28]

A number of studies have confirmed that there is an inverse relationship to doing volunteer work and depression.[29] The atheist population does less charitable works and volunteering per capita than the theist population (see: Atheism and uncharitableness).

## Many atheists are reluctant to admit the suicide problem in the atheist population[edit]

The atheist Staks Rosch wrote: "Depression is a serious problem with in the greater atheist community and far too often, that depression has led to suicide. This is something many of my fellow atheists often don’t like to admit, but it is true."[30]

## Atheism and European suicide in the 17th century[edit]

See also: Atheism and European suicide in the 17th century

Chandak Sengoopta, in a book review of Georges Minois's work History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture wrote:

“  |  Suicide became a prominent issue in England from the turn of the seventeenth century. The number of suicides, it was reported, had risen alarmingly and in the preface to his 1733 work, The English Malady, physician George Cheyne declared that he had been spurred to write it "by the late Frequency and daily Encrease of wanton and uncommon self-murders" (p. 181). According to Cheyne, the spread of atheism as well as the gloomy, melancholy-inducing climate of England were responsible for the rise in suicides; while his explanations were not always accepted, virtually nobody seems to have doubted that England had become the world capital of suicides. As Minois explains, there undoubtedly was a rise in the rates of reported suicides but, as far as one can tell from the available data, it was a European rather than an exclusively English phenomenon.[31] |  ”

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## Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion and the death of Jesse Kilgore[edit]

See also: Richard Dawkins and Jesse Kilgore and Atheism and depression and Atheism and Mental and Physical Health

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" along with a community college biology class, have been linked to the tragic suicide of Jesse Kilgore.[32] Kilgore had several discussions with friends and relatives in which he made it clear Dawkins' book had destroyed his belief in God. This loss of faith is considered the cause of his suicide which is not surprising given that there is evidence which suggest that atheism can be a causal factor for suicide for some individuals.[33][34][35]

Jesse's father is quoted as saying "If my son was a professing homosexual, and a professor challenged him to read [a book called] 'Preventing Homosexuality'… If my son was gay and [the book] made him feel bad, hopeless, and he killed himself, and that came out in the press, there would be an outcry. He would have been a victim of a hate crime and the professor would have been forced to undergo sensitivity training, and there may have even been a wrongful death lawsuit. But because he's a Christian, I don't even get a return telephone call."

Jesse's blog remains online after his death.[36]

## Suicide of atheist Anthony Bourdain[edit]

After the suicide of the atheist and American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, Catholic League president Bill Donohue indicated: "If Anthony Bourdain had been a religious man, would he have killed himself? Probably not."[37]

Donohue cited the inverse relationship between religiosity and suicide and also indicated that regular churchgoers have a much lower rate of suicide than atheists.[38][39]

## Atheism and suicide: Atheism contrasted with Christianity[edit]

Unlike atheism which merely offers vanity and unrelenting despair, Christianity offers an accurate view of the universe and man's place in it. For more information, please see: Christian joy, atheist despair and the good news of Christianity and Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian and Evidence for Christianity

## Solution to atheism and suicide[edit]

See also: Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian

Australian online opinion writer and lecturer in ethics and philosophy at several Melbourne theological colleges, Bill Muehlenberg, in his essay The Unbearable Heaviness of Being (In a World Without God) states the following:

“  |  Announcing, and believing, that God is dead has consequences. And it is we who suffer the most for it. We cannot bear the whole universe on our shoulders. We were not meant to. We must let God be God. Only then can men be men. Only then can we find the way forward to be possible, and the burdens not insurmountable.[40] |  ”

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## See also[edit]

* Atheism and loneliness
* Atheism and negative emotions/thoughts
* Atheism and mental toughness
* Atheism and death
* Atheism and meaninglessness
* Atheism and health
* Atheism and mental illness
* Atheism and alcoholism
* Atheism and drug addiction
* Atheism and social outcasts
* Atheism and anger
* Atheism and bitterness
* Religiously unaffiliated and suicide

## External links[edit]

* A suicidal atheist converts to Christ
* Atheism: Unyielding Despair
* Atheists emailing me saying they've left atheism for Jesus Christ \- YouTube video
* Ex-atheist conquers Atheist Experience show by exposing the madness of atheism

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ Adherents.com - suicide rates
2. ↑ Phil Zuckerman, Berkley Center website
3. ↑ Religious Affiliation, Atheism and Suicide
4. ↑ Lonely religious people are less depressed than atheists because they see God as a friend replacement, study finds, Daily Mail, 2018
5. ↑ NY Times, September 17, 1894, ATHEISM A CAUSE OF SUICIDE.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
6. ↑ Loneliness a Major Risk Factor for Suicidal Thoughts, Medscape, 2017
7. ↑ 15 Common Causes Of Suicide: Why Do People Kill Themselves?, Mental Health Daily
8. ↑
* Atheism and suicide
* NY Times, September 17, 1894, ATHEISM A CAUSE OF SUICIDE.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
9. ↑ NY Times, September 17, 1894, Atheism a Cause of Suicide.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
10. ↑ NY Times, September 17, 1894, ATHEISM A CAUSE OF SUICIDE.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
11. ↑ https://creation.com/atheism
12. ↑ https://creation.com/atheism
13. ↑ http://family.jrank.org/pages/1659/Suicide-Marital-Status-Family.html#ixzz1RJRmwSPF
14. ↑ http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/reports/NONES_08.pdf
15. ↑ http://www.livescience.com/culture/090227-religion-men-women.html
16. ↑ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/11/981112075159.htm
17. ↑ http://atheistwatch.blogspot.com/2010/10/rejection-of-christianity-and-self.html
18. ↑ http://atheistwatch.blogspot.com/2010/10/atheists-and-self-esteem-part-2.html
19. ↑ Risk factors found in suicide attempters
20. ↑ http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81459
21. ↑ http://users.newblog.com/Jkrapture/?post_id=17727
22. ↑ The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief By James Spiegel, page 72, Moody Publishers, 2010
23. ↑ Where are the honest atheists?
24. ↑ Russell, Bertrand (1947) "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?"[1] Most online sources say "by which one prove," probably a mistake.
25. ↑ Entropy and heat death
26. ↑ Ask the Brains, Scientific American, Dec 23, 2011
27. ↑ The dopamine side(s) of depression, Scientific American, 2012
28. ↑ Multiple references:
* Burke, Daniel, Religion News Service (May 13, 2009). "Religious people make better citizens, study says". Pew Research Forum. Archived on March 10, 2013 by Internet Archive. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
* Campbell, David and Putnam, Robert (November 14, 2010). "Religious people are 'better neighbors'". USA Today website. Retrieved on July 19, 2014.
29. ↑ http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/caring/caring-and-happiness-reviews/
30. ↑ Atheism has a suicide problem by Staks Rosch, Huffington Post
31. ↑ http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3213
32. ↑ http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81459
33. ↑ http://www.adherents.com/misc/religion_suicide.html
34. ↑ http://www.adherents.com/misc/religion_suicide.html
35. ↑ NY Times, September 17, 1894, ATHEISM A CAUSE OF SUICIDE.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
36. ↑ http://users.newblog.com/Jkrapture/?post_id=17727
37. ↑ Would Religion Have Saved Bourdain?, Christiannewswire.com, 2018
38. ↑ Would Religion Have Saved Bourdain?, Christiannewswire.com, 2018
39. ↑ Bill Donahue Talks About Anthony Bourdain’s Suicide, Medium news website, June 2018
40. ↑ http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/05/26/the-unbearable-heaviness-of-being-in-a-world-without-god/