Hannah Fortini
REL 217
Research Proposal
03/28/2015
American people are commonly exposed to drastic means of unhappiness though social media, movies and even personal experience. Though the opinions surrounding suicide in popular culture can be different from person to person, the connotation is that the act of committing suicide is an early escape from lives here on Earth. In addition, each major religion or culture discussed thus far in class has a particular standpoint against the detrimental act. Some of these viewpoints suggest peace or pity while others suggest punishment, putting the ‘escape’ into question by means of positivity or negativity. Through scholarly readings, journals and videos, I plan to study how the widespread religions of Buddhism and Christianity view the afterlife for individuals who take their own lives. Within each religion studied, I plan to carefully investigate the way the higher deities treat people who take their own lives, how the worshipers view those individuals as well as if and how they are treated differently throughout their time after earthly deaths. In regard to Buddhism, I plan to read Buddhism and Suicide: The Case of Channa by Damien Keown which was an edition of The Journal of Buddhist Ethics in 1996. I predict that through this reading, I will be able to find a different viewpoint between individuals reaching enlightenment and those who haven’t achieved it and if those differences change the repercussions of suicide. I also plan to read another article by Damien Keown entitled Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Buddhist Perspective found in The Journal of Law and Religion which will explore actual religious texts in regard to suicidal thoughts and actions. When studying Christianity, I plan to read sections from The Holy Bible which will hopefully give a lot of insight into what both the Christian God as well as his followers believe happens to individuals inflicting self death. I also plan on reading Jewish and