A Full-Term Pregnancy is like Spitting on your Child, Redux
My last post was kind of a convoluted mess about free will, age of accountability, and a couple of paragraphs on dinosaurs. I thought it might be useful to restate the age of accountability stuff without all the anti-dinosaur propaganda. So, here goes.
My observation is that most (though not all) modern American Christians subscribe to a concept of something called the “age of accountability”. In its most simple form this belief holds that children (and the mentally retarded) are not mature enough to be held accountable for their sins, so god treats them differently from adults when they die. Basically, the church holds that god is merciful and even though children are stained by original sin, god grants them entrance to Heaven because they didn’t have the opportunity to “undo” the sin through salvation and baptism.
It’s interesting to note that this doctrine appears nowhere explicitly in the actual Bible, and until the Catholic church adopted the idea of Limbo for unbaptized children, doctrine was that unbaptized kids went to hell. The now-apocryphal Apocalypse of Peter, for instance, written sometime around the 2nd-century, clearly shows children in Hell. Nevertheless, I wish to take up the modern Catholic and mainstream American Protestant belief that all children, regardless of baptismal status, will go to Heaven upon their death.
I feel that a modern Christian would say that all of the following are true:
- Children who die before the age of accountability will go to Heaven.
- Fetuses that are aborted have souls, and will therefore go to Heaven.
- If a child lives to the age of accountability, it’s more likely that they will end up in Hell rather than Heaven.
- If a fetus is actually born, it is possible that its life will be one of hardship.
- It is always preferable to be in Heaven rather than Hell.
- Murderers can be saved and can go to Heaven.
- Women and men who choose abortion for their fetus are murderers. Or, if not “murderers”, they have committed a sin.
- Women who get abortions can go to Heaven.
Based on the above statements, I contend that abortion is the best possible scenario for a human being. The child will never know the hardships of life, and since they won’t make it to the age of accountability, they have no possibility of making it to Hell. Since Hell is never better than Heaven, and since being born raises one’s chances of going to Hell, dying before birth avoids all possible negativities associated with life as a human. Or, if the child is born, dying before accountability prevents them from going to Hell even if it does not preclude them from having experienced hardship.
In order for this paragraph to be false, either children who die go to Hell, fetuses don’t have souls, or sometimes Hell is preferable to Heaven for a soul.
As far as the adult life goes, so long as they repent for their abortion, and so long as they believe Christ to be their savior, the Bible teaches that they can get into Heaven. The words of Jesus himself would seem to indicate that in actuality it is more likely that both lives will choose Hell rather than Heaven, so even if the mother did not repent before her death, she at least guaranteed the salvation of her own child.
Someone might say “abortion or child murder is wrong because god says it is, therefor you shouldn’t do it”. In reality, that’s irrelevant. If all of my statements above are true, it is 100% likely that at least one soul will get into Heaven. If the adult repents, the likelihood of both souls going to Heaven can also be 100%. On the other hand, if the child is allowed to live into adulthood, the likelihood of both souls going to Hell seems to be better than 50/50. Thus, it doesn’t matter what god says, as his own doctrine leaves an “out”.
In the end, we have a doctrine that either must be false (children do go to Hell), or we have shown Christianity to have a very serious internal contradiction (abortion/murder of children is preferable to letting them live). My own personal feeling is that a perfect god would not allow for an irrational doctrine, so this contradiction furthers the idea that Christianity is not divinely inspired. Or, if there is a god, he’s not perfect and can be irrational.
