I don't know if this belongs in the politforum, but what the heck.<br><br>I just want to express my outrage at the idea that's beginning to float in Catholic circles that the Church might get rid of limbo as a part of universal architecture. For those of you who're not Catholic, Limbo is the "lip" of hell, where ambiguous cases, like unbaptized babies, go instead of to heaven or to hell or to purgatory. Limbo was invented in the middle ages as a kinder, gentler place to have unbaptized babies go. Up to that point, following Saint Augustine, unbaptized babies had gone straight to hell, which is only logical given the effect of original sin. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that if Limbo is abolished, the current Church will not do the logical thing, and send babies to hell. Instead, I bet that the Church will try to be PC and have the babies go either to heaven or to purgatory.<br><br>Theologically neither of those two options seems reasonable to me. Send the unbaptized baby to heaven, and in effect the Church is getting rid of original sin--and if it gets rid of original sin, the whole structure of Christianity begins to collapse. No need for Xmas or Easter if there's no original sin, cause there's nothing for X to atone for. Can't do that, I'm afraid.<br><br>And if the baby goes to purgatory, the logic of purgatory goes out the window, since that's supposed to be the place where non-mortal volitional sins are expiated. Babies are by definition not volitional beings, and so they don't have any sin to expiate other than original sin--which can't be expiated by works or by punishment, which is why Xmas and Easter are necessary.<br><br>What a conundrum! I'll be very interested to see where Catholicism, that most logical of religions, goes with this. My vote is that they'll make those babies go to heaven and begin the process of undermining Christian faith. Worse than getting Christ out of Xmas!<br><br>. . . . . Here's lookin' at [color:red]you</font color=red> kid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Tuong_Van<br><br>oops<br><br>Impeach.

Limbo sounds like a pretty stupid idea.<br><br>So what happens to a baby who is baptised, but gets a chubby immediately after when he looks at his slutty cousin with the low cut dress? Since he hasn't learned to communicate how can he ask forgiveness for his sin?<br><br>

Hmm, sounds like personal experience...<br><br><br><br> <-- octagonal signature<br>

Hell I was feeling up the nurse when I was spat out...<br><br>

Babies are not volitional, so they can't commit mortal sin. The canonical age of reason is 7, which is why it used to be that one got first communion at that age: you can start to sin actively only when you have enough rationality knowlingly to choose evil over good. So the chubby-prone baby goes to purgatory, obviously <br><br>. . . . . Here's lookin' at [color:red]you</font color=red> kid.

The very idea that such things need to be thought out by the Church to me suggests one of two things:<br><br>1. There is no God because it was all made up by men who didn't have the foresight to see all the potential problems,<br><br>2. If there is a God, he's certainly not as great and all knowing as we're lead to believe, or he's just a terrible communicator.<br><br>

Well, either you've got a theology or you don't. Catholic theology IMHO is as rational as rational can be. If you grant the premises, the rest follows. The three central premises are (1) that God is just, (2) that original sin, directly against the majesty of God, corrupts humans generally, and (3) that original sin cannot be atoned other than by an act of God--hence Xmas and Easter are essential to atonement. Everything else follows from that, including the Augustinian point about unbaptized babies, since willy nilly they're corrupted by original sin. You're right, though, Limbo is a problem. It's a little like the Puritan Half-Way Covenant that was the slippery slope towards the collapse of New England purity.<br><br>. . . . . Here's lookin' at [color:red]you</font color=red> kid.

And yet there's nothing biblically that supports limbo or purgatory. There is heaven and there is the second death.<br><br><br>- This is gonna get pretty interesting. <br>- Define "interesting". <br>- Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die..

The Bible is a limited document, no doubt about that. Without the Magisterium, where would we be.<br><br>. . . . . Here's lookin' at [color:red]you</font color=red> kid.