Quote Originally Posted by thir View Post
As for suicide, I have often wondered when it became a sin in the eyes of the church, and if only Christianity sees it that way.
I can't quote sources, but it's my understanding that it happened fairly early on when Church leaders realized that the idea of heaven was far more enticing than life itself for a large percentage of their followers. And dead people don't donate to the Church, nor do they have children to brainwash, so it became necessary to make suicide a mortal sin. Not surprisingly, this lead to some Christians actually "volunteering" to be martyred, since the actual persecution of Christians that we've heard about was not widespread.