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King Of Wishful Thinking
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Philadelphia Suburbs
Posts: 6,669
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Here is an example of how to go about changing a theory that was untestable from the beginning.
Church Tradition of Limbo Heading for, Well, Limbo
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But limbo, that netherworld of unbaptized babies, worthy pagans and even a few Muslims, is very much on the way out--another lesson that while belief in God does not change, the things people believe about Him most certainly do.<script language="JavaScript"> var bnum=new Number(Math.floor(99999999 * Math.random())+1); document.writeln(""); document.writeln(" [img]/advertising/advert_line_top.gif[/img] "); document.writeln(""); document.writeln('<!-- BEGIN: AdSolution-Website-Tag 4.1 -->'); Ads_kid=0;Ads_bid=0;Ads_xl=300;Ads_yl=250;Ads_xp='';Ads_yp='';Ads_opt=0;Ads_wrd='';Ads_prf=''; document.writeln('<scr' + 'ipt type=\"text/javascript\" language=\"javascript\" src="http://a.as-us.falkag.net/dat/cjf/00/08/97/91.js"></scr' +'ipt>'); document.writeln('<!-- END:AdSolution-Tag 4.1 -->'); document.writeln("[img]/advertising/advert_line_bot.gif[/img] ");</script> <!-- BEGIN: AdSolution-Website-Tag 4.1 --> <script type=\"text/javascript\" language=\"javascript\" src="http://a.as-us.falkag.net/dat/cjf/00/08/97/91.js"></script><script type=\"text/javascript\" language=\"JavaScript\" src="http://a.as-us.falkag.net/dat/bjf/00/08/35/81.js"></script><script language="JavaScript">function Ads_PopUp() {}</script> <script type=\"text/javascript\" language=\"JavaScript\" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N3608.Beliefnet/B1428344.2;sz=300x250;click=http://red.as-us.falkag.net/red?cmd=url&flg=0&&rdm=88494997&dlv=113,8576,89791,83581,193202&kid=83581&ucl=111111A&dmn=.walngs01.pa.comcast.net&scx=1152&scy=864&scc=32&sta=,,,1,,,,,,,0,5,0,23203,23144,14658,21468,504&iid=89791&bid=193202&dat=;ord=88494997?"></script>
<!-- END:AdSolution-Tag 4.1 --> This month, 30 theologians from around the world met at the Vatican to discuss, among other dilemmas, the problem of what happens to babies who die without baptism.
The conferees do not like the word for it, but what they were really doing, as theological advisers to Pope Benedict XVI, was finally disposing of limbo a concept that was never official church doctrine but has been an enduring medieval theory of a blissful state among the departed, somehow different from both heaven and hell.
Unlike purgatory, a sort of waiting room to heaven for those with some venal faults, the theory of limbo consigned children outside heaven on account of original sin alone.
The theory has long been out of favor anyway, as theologically questionable and unnecessarily harsh.
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Before you pagans begin celebrating, note that they have not decided what will replace limbo. They could send the babies to heaven and everyone else to purgatory.
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And it has some real-life consequences. The church is growing most in poor places like Africa and Asia where infant mortality remains high. While the concerns of the experts reconsidering limbo are more theological, it does not hurt the church's future if an African mother who has lost a baby can receive more hopeful news from her priest in 2006 than, say, an Italian mother did 100 years ago.
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What kind of cynic would propose that theological judgements are politically motivated? 
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I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. -- Barack Hussein Obama
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