There's another wrinkle from history. Depressed medieval Christians would avoid suicide, with its attendant eternal hellfires, by murdering children. That's ri

There's another wrinkle from history. Depressed medieval Christians would avoid suicide, with its attendant eternal hellfires, by murdering children. That's right, murdering children. The innocents, they believed, would ascend to heaven. The murderer would be able to apologize for the murder and receive last rites from the Church before the State put them to death for their crime. They would die, go to heaven, and take someone along with them. It was a win for everyone, aside from the delusional bit, where it was all actually a horrific tragedy. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/473/transcript http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/473/t...