Hey Chris!
I totally agree with you - I really really doubt that this boy is going to hell. I too have often contemplated this. Now, maybe this is just me, but unless someone is a priest or has 12 years of graduate theological study, nobody had better try to impress on me more than their *opinion* on Godly matters - especially try and state God's mind or anything like that. And on cases like this ... I don't think that anyone really know! But I will tell you what I believe myself, and maybe it will offer some conciliation to some readers.

I believe that suicide is a sin. If you kill yourself because you hate yourself or the world than yes, as Cat said, that is hate and murder and that is sin. But I also believe that *all* types of suicide are sin. In Cat's shark situation, I think that is still sin. Like he said, it was the the avoidance of suffering - taking the easier way out. Maybe their was salvation on the other side of that and you would have survived and God had planned that you, after this life-changing experience, go on to change the lives of many others. Because you took the potentially easier way out (you weren't 100% sure you were going to die), you can no longer do that, in turn not only harming yourself but also others. Suicide, in my belief, is a sin.

Yet, I also believe that no sin is unforgivable. *Apparently* there are Venial and Mortal sins and all that jazz, which I think can be a really great and useful tool used to bring people to a closer relationship with God, and such. But not for a minute do I believe that that is the definitive terms that God is using to judge us. I believe that God loves us and is all powerful, and thus I think if we, in our heart, as God for forgiveness and ask to be led back into his arms, he will by all means do so! Thus, suicide, no matter how "bad" of a sin theologians can debate that it is, it can still be forgiven and will not bar anyone from heaven!

Further, I believe that the *only* way that someone is going to make it to hell is if they ask for it. I made a post way back maybe a month or so about this, but if you didn't read it, I will try and summarize. Nothing whatsoever is going to bar anyone from reaching heaven - God loved us enough to make that sure! If you believe in purgatory, then I see that as a place where we freshen ourselves up, for we can't - we wouldn't want to - see God face to face without being free from our sins. But those that do go to hell, when offered with the choice between repenting and seeing God or going to hell, they themselves choose hell. This sounds ridiculous now, but after death when only the heart is heard and the heart can't lie, someone who spent their whole life despising the law of God and running from any offer God has given them to turn to salvation, their heart is not going to simply change. They may be afraid, but really in their heart, they don't want it. That is why they go to hell. Well, in my own belief at least.

Hopefully that gave a little conciliation to some. Now, I am not a theology major or anything, so I have no idea how these ideas shape up to the "pros", but I honestly don't care. The church has been changing many of its teachings and policies constantly throughout history. They thought they were right then, but they weren't according to today's standards, so what makes today's church right? I don't use organized religion to form my philosophies on things like this that no one could possibly know. Rather I use it to help direct me to God and build my religion with Him.

What do yo think?

Graces of God,
Deliverance