Religious Perceptions of Suicide and Implications for Reduction of Suicides Advocacy in South West, Nigeria

Abstract

The role of religion in contemporary suicide reduction advocacy cannot be overemphasized. Suicide, in most cases has lent itself to multidisciplinary considerations, although before now it had been largely scientific. This includes a combination of psychology, medicine, psychiatry, biomedicine, psychobiology, neurology, medical sociology and others. In most situations, religion, philosophy of religion and philosophy have not been given the rightful place in suicide consideration. This approach could be seen clearly as a negative oversight. The goal of this paper is to examine some common religious perceptions of suicide and consequently apply such in the quest for suicidology advocacy. The paper applied religious, philosophical, historical and sociological research methodologies. It is recommended that a clear understanding of some common religious perceptions of suicide would assist in formulating some panaceas for suicide reduction. Consequently, there would be a reduction in the level of suicide behavior or complete suicide in the South West in particular, and Nigeria in general