Contentment vs Progress: The Suicide Debate

One recent class discussion came upon the influence of God in different cultures. A comment was made regarding suicide rates in countries following fatalist religions. In such religions, followers believe that both success and failure are a result of divine intervention of some sort. Meaning that when a person fails in life, there is less fault upon the person, and an increased sentiment that it was what God wanted. As such, suicide rates in many latin american and other fatalist countries are very low. Consider Dominican Republic at 1.8/100,000 and Peru at 0.9/100,000. In comparison, Canada sits at 11.3, and countries generally known to be secular are much higher. Russia, for example, sits third highest at 32.2 with Lithuania in the top spot with 38. And despite recent media coverage, Japan's suicide rate is only 11th, with 23/100,000. On a side note, the rate in Nunavut is 79.

But there is also the comment that many of these fatalistic Latin American countries, despite being long established, lack prosperity and progress on account of generally unmotivated populations. If God will do it for you, why would you do it yourself? These ideals, although generally breeding the lack of drive often seen in Latin American countries, also breed contentment with life no matter how poor it may be.

I would say that lessons could be learnt on both sides... fatalist countries may need a religious-endorsed boost to begin to pull their citizens out of poverty and corruption while more secular countries should learn to be more content with their lives - God given or not.