Over the last 10 years suicide among young people (10 - 24 years of age) has increased 10-fold. Suicide is now the 3rd leading cause of death among this demographic. There are now twice as many suicides as deaths from HIV/AIDs. More females than males consider suicide, but four times as many males die by this method than females.
It is not fair to make sweeping generalizations about such a serious situation. However, there are some interesting and informative statistics.
The children committing suicide largely feel as though they are cut off from family, friends and any meaningful relationships. Feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness, a family history of depression, feelings of isolation, physical or sexual abuse and the lack of a social support system are just a few of the emotional issues that accompany suicide.
My opinion is that we're playing around with fundamental social structures like family and sexuality and worth, reaping the logical result.
The psychological community responds to all this by insisting parents make sure children feel a sense of worth. Of course, this means simply telling a child how special they are, whether they are or aren't. Any engaged parent can tell you this just creates monsters. Young people who think they're special are now sure of it!
In the "old days" parents gave children credit for doing worthwhile things. And the accomplishments of worth reinforced positive feelings of worth. A worth that translates into productivity rather than destruction.
Children were an integral part of the family structure. They had a place. They had a job. And they knew who they were and where they stood. Today our children are living a disconnected life and wondering what's the use.
Where does all this come from? We'll here's a suggestion:
Richard Dawkins -- noted Darwinian Evolutionist -- said, "Life has no higher purpose than to perpetuate the survival of DNA...life has no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference."
William Provine -- another Darwinianist -- said, "There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death....There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans."
Is it possible that, after 70 years of this kind of instruction in our Schools and government-sponsored indoctrination, we have an entire society that believes these things?
On the other hand, noted scientists like Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle (Father of Modern Chemistry), Michael Faraday (Father of Electromagnetism), Louis Pasteur, Charles Babbage (Computer Science), Lord Kelvin (Thermodynamics) and scores of others were men and women who believed the Bible.
It was the fact that the universe was orderly (the product of intelligent design) that both motivated and encouraged them to continue in their research and study. A random universe can have no scientific hope. If things don't work the same way every time, how can you make sense of them or quantify them?
And, it would seem, a social structure without hope is equally discouraging.
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