I must grant you some points for your coherency. I have never heard of anyone religious supporting assisted suicide, and frankly I could never figure out why not. In fact, I don’t know why anyone religious would not advocate universal assisted suicide, or set up a system where everyone is automatically placed into harm’s way with no single person taking enough responsibility as to deserve the title of “murderer.” Maybe we can all dive into the sea, let ourselves sink, and pray to be rescued; or perhaps we should launch all the nuclear warheads at random targets. That way, when we’re all dead, we’ll go to heaven (or whatever magical happy place you believe in), because we haven’t committed any really horrible evils. And that’s bound to be a lot better than here!

But as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, I can’t really take any argument from the immortality of souls seriously. It’s just founded on a premise that is so utterly ridiculous, so contrary to every fact we have ever learned about human consciousness, so outright delusional, that to entertain it seriously is to insult the entire scientific enterprise and (as in my above reductio) potentially endanger the survival of the human race. PEOPLE DIE; when they die, THEY STAY DEAD. When they are dead, THEY ARE GONE. Repeat it to yourself if you have to; make it a nightly mantra. Do whatever it takes to make this simple but crucial fact sink in. Any policy based on the assumption that people do not really die, but go on to some magical happy place where everything is better, is simply insane.