The Question of Suicide
Chapter 6 of SSHM by John Kaag begins with a discourse about whether or not life is truly worth living. Kaag recounts the story of a young man named Steven Rose who committed suicide by jumping from a tall building in 2014, and he frequently asks himself whether or not James' philosophies about the meaning of life would have perhaps prevented him from that fateful jump (SSHM, 171). The primary question of this section of the chapter is why people kill themselves when life's worth is so seemingly obvious. According to James, "no man is educated who has never dallied with the thought of suicide"(SSHM, 170). With this idea in mind, Kaag describes how he believes a Pragmatist philosophy may be a lifesaving mentality for the person in despair, but that it will never bring someone out of that state once and for all (SSHM, 170-171). Pragmatism evaluates all decisions that one can make by how practical or useful they would be to one's self and the world around them, and it follows logically that this outlook could be lifesaving to a person who is considering suicide, as it forces them to look at things from a more objective point of view. They will likely conclude that their despair in life is worth persevering through, as it is more beneficial to the world around them that they keep on living, because of the effect their loss would have on their loved ones, the things in life that they are responsible for maintaining, and other such things. The only downside is that this requires a relatively clear mental state to evaluate these things, and many suicidal people are not in such a state, leading them to make rash decisions about their life's value, or to believe that things would continue as normal if they were removed from the picture. James had a famous quip that he used to sum up this issue, stating: "Is life worth living? Maybe- it depends on the liver" (SSHM, 171). This quote very succinctly sums up the pragmatic view of suicide, that life might be worth living, but that we cannot say that as a blanket statement, because we can only truly say whether or not our own life has value. Th idea behind James' "maybe" hinges on the concept of human free will. He believed that the thing that would make life truly worth living was the possibility of a better future that one could make for themselves, but that said future may not be possible for everyone. Kaag summarized it by saying (while referring to Steven Rose mentioned earlier), "Perhaps James' 'maybe' could have saved him- the suggestion that he was still in charge of his life, that the decision to end it all might be reasonable, even respectable, but so too was the possibility to live" (SSHM, 171). This idea is the core of the Jamesian idea of how to understand the value, or lack thereof, of human life.
Personally, I understand this point of view but I find it to be inherently misguided. The notion that everyone gets to decide for themselves whether or not their life has value makes sense, but it abandons the objective value that human life holds within its very existence, whether "the liver" realizes it or not. Kaag states that he believes the worst thing one could say to a suicidal person is that their life has value and that they should keep on living for that reason, and he believes that said suicidal person may even commit out of spite just to prove you wrong (SSHM, 172). This view, however, implies that the only value that a human life holds is that which is perceived by the individual, which is simply not true. When taken to its logical conclusion, this idea undermines the very foundation of civilized life and sets the stage for many dire consequences. If there is no objective value to human life, then laws preventing murder and other things that destroy human life, such as rape, battery, theft, and other things are entirely arbitrary, because all of these principles require a basic understanding that life has inherent value in itself. If the value of life is subjective, then the only thing that makes these aforementioned crimes wrong is the fact that society as a whole has simply decided that these things are wrong. I hold a Christian worldview, and therefore approach all topics through that lens, and the relativistic philosophy contained within this understanding of the value of life is simply incongruent with what I believe to be true. The Bible clearly states that human life has value, because humans are created by God in His image, which in itself gives human life value, as it is a reflection of the divine. For a Christian to say that human life even might not have value is to claim that the reflection of God Himself may not be 
good enough to be deemed valuable, and no Christian can say that without going against the foundation of the religion they claim to hold to. Psalm 139:13-16 states: "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." This Christian view, that every person is "fearfully and wonderfully made" is fundamentally opposed to the Jamesian idea of life's value being defined by "the liver". Human life's value is determined by the fact that its very existence points to something greater than itself, something that is capable of giving infinite meaning to even the most broken soul. To close, i would like to bring up what is likely the most cited verse in the Bible, John 3:16. It says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life". This verse by itself proves that all human life has value, because God loves everyone, and He values the life of every person, thus giving every life value. Beyond this, He loves everyone to such a great extent that He sent God the Son to earth to bridge the gap between us and God by paying the price due for all sin, the ultimate expression of sacrificial love of all time, all to provide a path for humanity to be reunited with the glory of God, just as we were created to be.
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