That’s the path toward suffering. What if I choose to have zero personal attachments, but still celebrate human life? Complete strangers become immediate friends, family even. I have no need for such selfish bonds that will lead me to suffering.

I guess that's your choice, but please consider that avoiding suffering at the expense of all other factors is an extreme choice, and you may miss out on something worthwhile.

>you may miss out on something worthwhile

sorry, you should correct that to :

you will miss out on everything worthwhile

Nothing is actually worthwhile. Our "worthwhile" sense is perfectly capable of telling us that building the largest Beanie Baby collection is worthwhile, that joining the Westboro Baptists is worthwhile, or starting a juice bag startup is worthwhile.

Do other people's lives seem more worthwhile to you because they have some relationships with people you'd care nothing for? Not to me -- the worthwhileness is an entirely subjective feeling for them. Whereas suffering is a real thing that subtracts much more from life than worthwhile adds.

If the highest you can attain in life is a lack of suffering, then death is the reasonable option. As a mindset, I think that's not a great one to have.

>As a mindset, I think that's not a great one to have.

It's the thesis behind one of the world's great religions.

It is in fact not, unless you are talking about some cult I don't know about.

If you are talking just from the elimination of suffering angle, sure. But they make the theological case that the absence of suffering itself leads to a state that is far more than just the absence of suffering. I don't think we can or should take that as a given, just as we don't take other theological truths as a given.

Perhaps, but sometimes it's the right thing to do even if it's painful.

Imagine for a moment a person makes the decision to commit suicide but needs to stay alive for a while longer in order to complete certain professional obligations. Would it be appropriate for that someone to form attachments, to be selfish and make friends knowing that he will hurt them terribly when he kills himself? If one of them were to be the one that discovers his dead body, or by the ones coping with his disappearance?

Or is it better that he do the right thing, and sever any attachments that may exist so that they won't get hurt when he does kill himself? To contain the suffering to just one single individual.

How do you make decisions about whether or not to exercise or when to go to the dentist?

I find it hard to believe that you could read a story like this one and what you come away with is the idea that dogs bring suffering.

The only way you can avoid suffering is by not being born and since you are already here, you have lost from the start.