 |
| Solomon's war in the time of peace was the elusiveness of life's meaning... he unofficially became the founder of nihilistic thinking... the purveyor of existential philosophy |
In Nigeria suicide attempt is a criminal act with
a one year jail term penalty, but it has not stopped people from trying and
others from succeeding. March 19, 2017, a medical doctor jumped into his watery
grave from the top of the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge. October 16, 2017, a Kogi
State civil servant owed months of salary hanged himself on a tree after ten
days his barren wife delivered triplets. Uk, June 11 last year, Ceri Sheehan ,
15, took his own life than have his parents tore him apart from his iPad. All
these leave us, the living, to ponder the rationale behind suicide as we try to
deal with the loss. Why do people take their own lives? Does the Bible offer
explanations?
In the WHO suicide ranking, Nigeria, with
15.1 suicides per 100,000 population per year, is ranked the 30th most
suicide-prone out of 183 nations in the world. Using the Nigerian 180 million
population margin, that’s 27,180 suicides per year and 108,720 suicide death in
four years. Nigeria also rates 10th in Africa’s suicide rating.
JUSTIFICATION FOR SUICIDE
Philosophers are divided between moral and
liberal lines on the subject of suicide. French essayist and novelist, Albert
Camus began one of his philosophical essays with this line: “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem
and that is suicide.”
Liberalists and idealists are of the notion
that it is well within the ambit of the exercise of one's liberty to self-determine
the termination of one's existence. As opposed general belief they argue that
suicide is not a decision always steeped in irrational thinking but a steel
resolve to choose freedom when living portends unnecessary suffering. They also
advocate the choice of the individual should be respected. A German
philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer affirmed:
"They tell us that suicide is the greatest act of cowardice... that
suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world
to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and
person." Those on the moral lane refer to the notion of suicide as
an act of cowardice, unwillingness to deal with life's problems and a rejection of freedom.
THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES
Among many who tried finding answers to the
challenges of human societies through philosophy was Solomon, the famed wisest
king, the last king who ruled united kingdom of Israel from 2924 to the year 2964 (from its creation). He
wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes and two other books of the Bible.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is the diary of a
man who explored the luxuries of wealth and knowledge but couldn’t grapple with
the big questions of life. In his indulgence in life’s pleasure and his
observation of misery in human society emptiness began to fill his soul. He
questioned the worth of a man’s life, the destiny of man and the essence of
life. Solomon's war in the time of peace was the elusiveness of the meaning of life.
Therefore he unofficially became the founder of nihilistic thinking (vanities upon vanities) and the purveyor
of existential philosophy (eating and
drinking).
The life of Solomon reveals that at the core
of every suicidal tendency there is a search for meaning and that suicide isn’t
only an escape from life’s suffering but in some cases the pleasures of it, as Schopenhauer
too claims. He raised deep thoughts in three verses which I believe give a sort
of three stage framework on suicide tendencies.
WHY SUICIDE?
So I
returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the
sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no
comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they
had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead
more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they,
which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the
sun.a
STAGE ONE: The Seed of Oppression
According
to the World Health Organisation, WHO, there are 322 million people living with
depression in the world. American foundation for Suicide Prevention says 25
million Americans suffer from depression each year. Over 50 percent of all
people who die by suicide suffer from major depression. Scientists and psychologists declare depression as the
No. 1 cause of suicide but Solomon suggests oppression at the seed of it. Here
is why:
Depression doesn’t surface without certain
conditions that engineer it to be. The loss of a job or a broken relationship
may eventually lead to depression but only on the basis of the belief that we
deserve a better deal than we got.
An act or a perceived feeling of injustice inflicts
suffering and psychological torture deep within the human heart. It is this state
that forms the incubation module for depressive thoughts. An employee who
perceived he was fired on racial grounds is more likely to end up depressed
than another employee who got fired for phony transactions. The former has no
justifiable motive that influenced his sack and may likely feel he is a victim
of a predicament beyond his input. On the other hand the latter knew from
inception he is taking a gamble based on his own choice, he has a reasonable
framework to embrace his fate. The feeling that we are owed reasonable
explanations or better treatment as opposed the circumstances we face opens us
up to doubts and questions. When these doubts and questions are not effectively
managed then depression sets in.
STAGE TWO: The Lone Victim
The lack
of sympathy or concern from people greatly impacts an individual battling with
perceived injustice. Sympathy might be in form of justice, a new focus or even
a new distraction –a new relationship or a hobby. The sacked employee can decide to dissolve
that sense of oppression by opting for legal action or beginning a cause for
racially discriminated employees –the point is he is working on that perceived injustice.
He is building a framework for finding life’s meaning.
As long as he tries to get rid of that seed
of oppression, or yield to people who trying to help him achieve that, he
cannot be overwhelmed by depression. But where there is no avenue for justice and
sympathy, the oppression festers into a hopeless and helpless situation that
produces intense suffering, the feeling of self-resentment for a predicament
one cannot change, the death of one’s noble aspirations and a resignation to
constant feelings of doubts and questions of one's life's usefulness and
existence.
Gradually ideas such as me against the World or the invisible
me, begin to creep into and occupy the mind. A gradual or in some cases
drastic case of withdrawing inwards from everything else takes place afterwards.
Until they finally reach the conclusion that nobody cares about me and nobody will miss me when I am gone. This
is what Solomon saw as the oppressed having “No comforter,” and what Mother
Teresa aptly describes as, Loneliness and
the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
STAGE THREE: Obsession Of Escape
The third stage is where the Preacher
esteemed death as a superior state than being alive. The desire to end the
anguish of the heart, to quell all known suffering and be in a state of bliss –where
the heart no longer hurts, where injustice doesn't live and time doesn't tick.
Right at the root of all suicidal thoughts is that feeling of internal
suffering and the desperation to be rid of it –either for a peace beyond the
present chaos or a total obliteration of one's existence. As Herodotus said, "When life is so burdensome,
death has become for man a sought-after refuge.” Hence the attempt to make all
the injustice and suffering go away by the stroke of death.
SOLOMON’S PHILOSOPHICAL MUSING
Solomon was flirting with existential
philosophy when he suggested death as a route of escape –being oblivious of the
evil done under the sun, and this he validates on the premise of man having no
intrinsic worth when he said, Man's fate
is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so
dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal.
Everything is meaningless.” b
Since man’s life worth and destiny is no
different from that of say, a goat or chicken as opposed the words of Christ in
Matthew 10:31, his state of living or death will have no real consequences. He
could destroy his life and disappear into oblivion if he so pleases. Solomon’s
nihilistic thinking denudes that philosophical bridge all who attempts suicide had
to cross.
Existential living presents suicide as an
escape to a paradise of nothingness –no memory, no identity, no consciousness,
no suffering, no good or evil, everything becomes nothing. As an example, we
endure the piercing pain of a syringe coursing through our body because there
is hope of a cure. Take away that hope and no reason exists to endure the pain
of a needle. Suicide becomes a viable alternative when we cannot find meaning in
or reason for suffering.
At the tail end of the Book of Ecclesiastes wise
king Solomon eventually discarded his earlier philosophy on the grounds of
God’s omniscience. He finally understood man is accountable to God for the
exercise of his free will. He ended his quest for the understanding of evil,
human wickedness and suffering in the hands of God who shall judge the world. Solomon
reluctantly but finally saw there is a limitation in the use of philosophy to unpin
all life’s questions, in his own words,
The
preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was
upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails
fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And
further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end;
and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty
of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing,
whether it be good, or whether it be evil.c
GOD’S THREE SIMPLE APPLICATIONS TO MAN
Faith
Faith isn't denial of reality. It is refusing
to deny that there is a higher purpose in all earth’s realities –sufferings,
pain, loss, despair etc. Faith in God carries us through the past and in the
present it gives meaning and optimism. When we know we were created in God’s
image, we find destiny and launch towards it through the chaos of the world.
The belief in a grand designer and creator places an intrinsic worth upon our
lives without us necessarily having all life’s problems figured out. Since God
is aware of us we embrace storms noting we are in good hands.
Hope
Where human suffering abounds, injustices and
unexplainable wickedness in the world, when we look at the world asking how a
sovereign and loving God can allow evil in our present world, hope becomes an
anchor. We know as we see in Christ, pain and suffering is brief and there is
eternal glory to be unveiled. It is that knowledge in us that whether we live
or die we are part of something eternal and grand that carries us through life.
We know existence goes beyond the physical as we look towards God's kingdom.
Love
Love is the fabric that connects our present
and future. The bridge between faith and hope is love –without it we will drown
in despair. God has loved us. We embrace it and communicate it to humanity. We
draw meaning in life through relationships. We know the world is not all gloom.
The act of kindness and the power of love still abound in a world of hate. As
we share our common human identity with love in our hearts, our lives are
enriched and some of life’s biggest questions are bridged. Though we pour so
much into the lives of others we are never empty, for all of life’s pain and
misery becomes shadows in the reality of love. As mother Teresa rightly said,
the hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
It is this hunger that the gospel of Jesus sufficiently satisfies.
Like Solomon our world leans so much on
philosophy for meaning but faith, hope and love gives it to us in a simple but
powerful experience.
And so faith, hope, love abide [faith —
conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope
— joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love — true affection
for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the
greatest of these is love.d
Footnote
aEcclesiastes
4:1-3
bEcclessiates
3:19
cEcclesiastes
12:10-14
d1 Corinthians
13:13
Comments