Jane has declared that in ninety days she's going to kill herself, and she's keeping a
daily blog to share her experiences during her final months. She writes:
I am going to kill myself in 90 days. What else should i say? This blog is not a cry for help or even to get attention. It's simply a public record of my last 90 days in existence. I'm not depressed and nothing extremely horrible has lead me to this decision. But, does it really have to? I mean, as an atheist I feel life has no greater purpose.
As of today, February 11, she has 84 days left.
I can't predict the future, so I can't say with certainty whether Jane will or will not kill herself at the appointed time, but my hunch is that her blog is complete b.s. There are a couple of reasons for suspecting this. First of all, this is not the first suicide blog to have appeared on the internet, and they invariably end up being fake. Remember the
"Countdown to Oblivion" blog, in which Jerry Romero declared he was going to kill himself on January 13th, 2005? When the date arrived, he posted a single-word message for all his readers: PWNED.
Second, her comment that "as an atheist I feel life has no greater purpose" strikes me as phony. It sounds like what a religious person imagines that an atheist would say. Most atheists, I think, would say that they don't need a deity to have a fulfilling, meaningful existence... thank you, very much. Our relationships with other people and what we do with our life is what gives it meaning.
In fact, I suspect that religious people are far more likely to commit suicide, since they view death as not being final. They might imagine killing themselves as a way to start over, either through reincarnation or by becoming a spirit. For instance, you don't often hear of atheist suicide bombers.
In this vein, there have been recorded cases of people who have committed suicide as an experiment, in the belief that they would be able to find out what life after death was like, and find a way to communicate that knowledge back to the living. For instance, the Jan 24, 1927 issue of the
Chicago Tribune records the case of W. Cassels Noe, a medical student at the University of Wisconsin, who "shot and killed himself today, leaving a note saying he wanted to learn what was beyond the grave. The note, addressed to a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother, promised him that Noe would communicate with him from the beyond as soon as possible and tell what death is and what it brings."
There's no evidence that Noe ever found a way to send his friend a message.
Update: I should revise what I said above. Having thought about it for a few minutes, I don't actually think that a person's religious beliefs (or lack of them) has any predictive value of whether that person is likely to take their own life. So I'll take back that line about religious people being more likely to commit suicide. It was a knee-jerk response to "Jane's" suggestion that she might as well commit suicide since she's an atheist. I'll simply point out that, just as there are certainly depressed people who commit suicide and declare that they don't believe in God, there are also plenty of people who kill themselves because they think they're going on to some kind of afterlife. The Heaven's Gate cult here in San Diego was one of the most famous examples of that here in America.
Comments
Look for Signs of Danger. Records Everything, Leaves No Trace." and "New Horizons Academy
Therapeutic Christian Boarding School for Your Struggling Teen". The perils of basing everything on keywords.
http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s4490dayjane
is the link in the pagecode...
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8636613675
She wrote: "I feel a massive sense of responsibility to my art, but more importantly the readers of this blog. My closeness to this project must have made art seem like reality to many people. That is not a reaction that I expected nor can I morally justify. This is why my project, 90DayJane, will be taken down in the next few hours."
Art, whether you think it`s good art is up to yourself.
She even made the news here in Belgium...
She should be ashamed of herself!
A useless waste of flesh and bones.
However, I have my doubts. I dont think shes really gonna commit suicide. Its just another hoax.
Jane's blog HAS BEEN MOVED TO
http://90-day-jane.blogspot.com
:exclaim: :exclaim: :exclaim:
http://www.flumesday.com/2008/02/13/90-day-jane-a-hoax-takes-down-site/
I fail to see how it is an 'overly logical' inference about atheism.
For a start, atheism is just the lack of belief in gods, it does not automatically mean that an individual does not believe in some form of continuation of the individual after death, or that there is an intrinsic lack of meaning to life. The concepts of reincarnation and karma require no belief in gods, so someone (though not, perhaps, a rationalist) could still believe in these concepts and remain an atheist.
Secondly, even where it is true that an atheist does not believe in any form of afterlife, that does not mean that they would see (their) life as having no great purpose. This would be to imply that purpose can only be applied from the outside, which is neither a proven nor logical conclusion.
The confusing of atheism and nihilism is a common misconception among many overtly religious critics of atheism (as is the confusing of atheism and scientific/material naturalism). This is not the sort of category error made by someone who (to commit a 'no true scotsman') is atheist in more than name only.
It is logical to think that life without gods has no meaning? Only a theist would say so.
I've known two people that have committed suicide and in both of their cases it had everything to do with severe clinical depression, and absolutely nothing to do with religion. A lot of people that have severe depression do not understand that they have a condition that can potentially be treated, and even the people that do seek treatment do not always find a drug that can help them.
Physiology is a tricky thing, and depression makes your mind play tricks with your judgment and causes you such deep pain that it feels like just the act of breathing is unbearable and the weight of the world is crushing you. When someone is suffering in this way, the act of committing suicide is not a cry for attention or an act of selfishness, it's simply the only way they can see to escape the pain of being alive. It's not something anyone does lightly.
If you condemn someone for this, it only means that you have no true understanding of depression and no real empathy.
Nobody really wants to kill themselves. What people really want is to be happy and successful.The problem lies in being so ill that it becomes difficult if not impossible for the ill person to conceive of ways to accomplish those goals,and the only apparent solution is to quit altogether.
Realizing that you have a problem is the first big step. The second step is seeking out help for that problem, whether that help be proffesional or peer support.
From here on out, it is important to stay on your medication, the third big step.
Then most of the things that need to be done are "baby steps". Little things that have to be done every day to make yourself feel better.
Even seriously ill people do recover and go on to lead happy and successful lives. No one says it's easy. Some of the things that need to be done will seem hard at first. But it is better than being sick!
Among those people who have made dramatic recoveries from mental illness, they all almost universally say, " I reached a point where I couldn't live that anymore. I had to do something"
Ultimately, each of us is responsible for our own welness.
Which is neither evidence for or against him being logical, overly or otherwise.
"I do think that someone who is overly logical could come up with the idea that atheism could lead to suicide, they could also come up with any number of ideas and have a full chain of impeccable logic to support the idea."
And you are entitled to your opinion. However, I do not see how two unconnected concepts such as the existence of gods and the worth of life can be correlated through 'impeccable logic'. I doubt you or your friend could come up with any such logical sequence, impeccable or otherwise, if you tried.
Also, 'impeccable' logic from identical premises would reach identical, or at least compatible, conclusions. Anything else would be a logical contradiction in violation of Aristotle's law, and would indicate that either your logic or your premises are wrong (hence not impeccable).
http://90daypbj.blogspot.com/
Perhaps people are atheists because they're unhappy or unsatisfied with religion.
Actually, that would be an interesting survey: of the people who convert, how many were unhappy before meeting church members?
How many would describe themselves as lonely?
How many close friends did they have, and what did they do with those friends?
How many of these people have had episodes of depression?
And of atheists, how many have had depressive cycles?
How many were socially isolated? If so, were they unhappy?
Who were their associates at the time if/when they decided to stop believing?
Isn't that pretty much the same as saying, "Ignorance is bliss" ?
Most of the atheists I know personally (including myself) are people that think really seriously about things, and I would guess that anyone that spends a lot of serious thought on anything (whether they be religious or not) is likely not as "happy" as people that blindly go through life expecting someone or something else to take care of things for them. "Happiness" isn't the only important thing in life, and not being happy is NOT the same thing as being depressed.
I think many people that turn to religion because they feel empty inside and they are looking for something to fill up that emptiness. I, however, don't feel empty inside, so I don't feel any need for religion.
(And no, I'm not lonely OR socially isolated, thank you very much! I'm mildly offended (but also amused) that people might make that assumption about me just because I don't attend church.)
http://kill90dayjane.blogspot.com/
Thanks.
They leave notes behind, but they are found after the suicide.
I wonder if a future post will show a cheesecake video of the sandwich trying on dresses?
Athenea:
I'm guessing you've never had a severe depressive episode, or really known anyone who has.
http://kill90dayjane.blogspot.com/
This is coming from someone who has tried to commit suicide several times and who has watched my causin blow his head off.
I am not going to come at you all frilly like, I am going to come at you real.....I have no idea why you want to kill yourself, but if you are, why wait 90 days? Why dont you just film yourself doing it, and have someone put it up on u-tube so we can all enjoy watching you take a straight line to hell. Get ready to be butt raped by deamons on a daily basis and burning for eternity.
You are a selfish, manipulative, striving for attention moron. At least be creative like Cobaine and blow your freakin head off. But hey, if you need any ideas I could give you some....how about dousing yourself in blood and jump in shark infested waters or better yet....why not jump off a overpass and let a semi splatter you all over the freeway! Any way you decide to do it, just do it already.........
Considering all the effort you have put into this site, I have decided that I will kill myself in 60 days, but only I am going to film it, and they will make a movie of it, and I will be the one getting recognition not you!
I am sorry you didnt have a painful life and that you have no real excuce, but I have numerous. I want to thank you for giving me the reassurance that this is truely the only answer, and if this is some kind of movie or promotion, I guess when my family sues your ass off, you may realize the true gratitude of what you have done.
Your in Death,
60 day lacy
P.S. The suicidle hotlines also encouraged me with my eternal wishes.
Here's hoping!
daveprime
http://jimclass.com/carnivaledge.html
Go figure..
what an idiot