I was taught it was attributing the works of God to satan. Is that what you see it as?
Of course it depends on what religion you are. If you are Christian, then Matthew 12:31-12:32 would seem to apply.
But whether that applies to non-believers as well as believers, or whether suicide constitutes a blasphemy against the Spirit, are questions that are open to debate. Speaking of debtes, I think this is a great one.
I’m of two minds. White Zinfandel or sandals with socks. 
[sup]<sorry. Carry on.>[/sup]
The quote above was snagged from this site which seems to support exactly the notion mentioned in the OP. It’s not too long (a solid page maybe) but worth a read to get the biblical/historical perspective of where the precept in the OP comes from (if I’m wrong in this Reeder please let me know).
This is a vague memory but I thought the thinking on suicide was that life is a gift from God and to take your own life is to reject that gift…something God sees as a serious no-no. Hence, suicide counts as an unforgiveable sin.
As to what other religions feel on this issue I couldn’t say but I’d be interested to hear about them as well.
Lets throw another twist into the suicide equation. Would God see euthanasia as suicide?
White shoes after Labor Day?
Let’s not forget that the Old Testament declares a different sin unpardonable than the New Testament does.
I was taught that the unpardonable sin was to feel the call of God to accept him in your life and you deny that call and walk away. Before I became a Christian, I can remember sitting in church and having the pastor do the alter call, where you walk to the front of the church after the service and the pastor prays with you the sinner’s prayer. Our church did this to fulfill the scripture that states “if you do not publicly acknowledge me before men I will not acknowledge you before my Father”, out of Romans I think. Being at work I can’t look it up at this moment. I can remember feeling the desire and urge to step out and go forward, but I resisted. In other words I denied the call of God. I was one of the blessed ones. The longer you resist that call the easier it becomes, to the point that you no longer even feel it. Your heart becomes hardened. I didn’t get that hard. I stepped out many years ago and I’m glad I did. When I read the posts on some of the threads and see where people have nothing to hold on to and nothing to believe in, I wonder how they survive.
I don’t know if God equates euthanasia to anything else but if you accept that the Pope is the official speaker on earth of what God wants us to do then euthanasia is wrong. I’m probably oversimplifying this but I believe the idea is that life is a gift from God and only God has the right to decide when you should die. Euthanasia defeats this notion by taking the end of your life into your own hands and certainly seems like a form of suicide (it’s often referred to as assisted suicide). By that measure I would assume (according to the Catholic Church) you are putting your soul in peril should you avail yourself of assisted suicide.
Needless to say the Pope is the head of just one particular religion and a minority religion at that. I have no idea how Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist or any of dozens of other religions view this particular aspect of dying.
Well then, I suppose we also shouldn’t prolong life with respirators, or try “heroic measures” to reanimate someone, or take care of premature babies, or try to cure cancer, or give a new heart to a 70-year-old man. On the other hand, God has given man the ability to think and create, to find cures for illnesses, to fix “broken” parts: all this to improve our lives. If we take responsibility to “improve” on God’s plans by delaying death to give a better quality of life, can we not “improve” on God’s plans by shortening a pain-filled life where there is no long-term hope of relief?
If we’re talking about an all-loving God, then there can be no unpardonable sins.
If we’re talking conservative Christianity, wherein all those unforgiven will be condemned for eternity, all sins are unpardonable–after a point.
I’ve always said the only unforgivable sin is to no not believe in Jesus/God. For the simple reason that
a)God forgives all sins
b)but you have to believe Jesus died for them first.
muppetsoup wrote:
Wow. God’s a real bastard. Murder, rape, torture are all forgivable, but harboring mistaken beliefs isn’t.
What would we think of a judge who gave every defendant who came before him for sentencing life in jail, regardless of what crime they had committed, unless they believed that he owned a blue cat, in which case they would walk free? We’d probably think that he deserved to be removed from the bench and thrown in the loony bin. And yet billions of people have no problem viewing God this way. Go figure.
Well said Opus1. That’s one of my main problems with the God of the bible: He is irrational. So either it’s not true, or it is true and we’re all screwed, no matter what, cause he’s a crazy mofo.
DaLovin’ Dj
I was making no comment on how I feel about euthanasia, suicide or unpardonable sins as I didn’t feel it was relevant to the OP. Personally I’m with you 100% but that’s neither here nor there as far as this thread is concerned. I haven’t tried a search myself but I’d bet there’s already been discussion on the topic of euthanasia on this board before. If not it’d probably make for a good GD thread.
Opus1 wrote:
I think it’s important to note that God doesn’t just hand out forgivenes like Halloween candy. Genuine repentance is required.
Spreading glurge over the net?
Be that as it may, the Bible (well, actually Paul) teaches that you can be the most repentant guy in the world, but you will still burn in Hell for eternity if you don’t believe that Jesus died for your sins. This strikes me as highly unfair.
Now THAT is a God I’ll kneel for. If a deity gives jealous Old Testament-style wrath over spam in general, it’s got my vote.
More seriously, the whole concept of unpardonable sin is of course far more for the benefit of keeping the worshippers happy. People need limits in things; it’s all well and good to talk about God as being all-forgiving when it’s in generalities (it sure beats the old way of waking up one day with boils because of something an ancestor did several generations back), but the flock is going to get very uncomfortable depending on specifics.
Where the limits go isn’t as important as that there are some. “No one gets to Heaven but through me,” is a fine limit when your faith is still a tiny little Jewish heresy struggling to grow past constantly being killed for Roman sport, and dealing with schisms appearing faster than dandelions in spring–for one thing, all those people making your life hell are going to get theirs, by God. Later on, when everyone you know is Christian and therefore has that “through him” thing nipped in the bud, it’s not so satisfactory–so any savvy Church is going to set down some new limits posthaste.
And they’ll continue to evolve with changing times. With the world being more and more interconnected, and communication flowing more quickly and freely by the day, old limits such as the old standby of “only through me” are probably going to erode away. There’s a slow cumulative effect of people being troubled, deep in their hearts, that their email-pal from across the globe is going to burn in enternal torment simply because she’s a Shintoist or whatnot. That they’re still there in black and white will mean about as much as any political law still on the books, but completely unenforced. New unpardonable sins will show up to replace them.
Why?