While the view of believers on this top has shifted over time, religion has never answered the question as to what happens to babies when they die. Many top religious thinkers once said they went to hell or someplace between heaven and hell. Now, as the world has changed, most take a different view. It seems inexplicable as to why this god did not take a few seconds and devote a few lines in his books to clearly answer this question. Could it be there is no good answer?
There are a few choices here, but none of them offer a divine plan.
1. We can say these babies go to hell. However, few in the modern world still believe their god would be as utterly cruel and sadistic as to send babies to burn for all eternity for the crime of dying young.
2. Some have proposed that these babies are sent to some kind of purgatory. However, that is hardly fair either. Would a loving and merciful god separate a child from its parents for all eternity in less-than-desirable place for the crime of dying?
3. We can say they get a free pass and go to heaven, but this raises its own problems. The whole purpose of this world and suffering is supposed to be a test (although it seems odd an all-knowing god would need to test anything!). If these babies can get a free pass by dying young, why not everyone? How many would be mass murderers such as Hitler or Stalin got free passes and are in heaven now then? Why send anyone for sadistic eternal torture for a test many can just skip?
Some religious people will try to counter that their god has a way of judging, but what would that possibly be? Since babies have not done anything to be judged by, then the only way they could be judged is by something that was predetermined in a divine coin toss. If their fate is predetermined, then is not everyone’s? This god creates people he knows he will send to sadistic eternal torture?
If life is a test, surely a being with the power to create the universe could make sure everyone had their chance to take it, correct? Why sit and watch children murdered or die from the childhood diseases this god created?
Furthermore, it is not only the babies that die without having any chance to exercise free will (and how people exercise free will is determined by a lot of factors regardless). What about the mentally ill, brain damaged or those that have been brainwashed such as a child soldier brainwashed and brutalized to commit horrible atrocities? If that child dies a brainwashed killer, is it sent to hell for being born in the wrong place at the wrong time even though he might have grown into a very good person in a better environment?
There are just so many ways in which life does NOT appear to be a test. It all boils down to this though: either babies and the like who die without ever having the chance to exercise free will are sent for horrible torture or get a free pass! That hardly seems like a divine test created by a perfect god.
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