believers - what dyou think happens to child not bought up with religion in death?

[herjazz]

am genuinely interested. Not looking for an argument.. nor reassurance especially although it might seem a bit pascal's wager

so a small child who is not capable of deciding / choosing their own religious path and one who's parents do not engage in any religious practices.. what happens to their souls in the event of premature death?

TIA

Personally, I think they will simply stay dead - I do have a Christian faith, but I don't believe in Hell, either for people who have done "evil" things, or those who just don't have religious faith, because I don't see that God would have any need or wish to punish people just for not believing. I do believe that people who are in a relationship with God when they die will have a chance of something else after this life, but I'm not very clear about what form that will take.

And I'm not clear at what stage a child is expected to make a decision for themself, and till when they are "covered" by their parents faith and/or going to church etc with their family but without making their own commitment.

I believe all children go to heaven if they die in childhood.

I am not a beliver so maybe I am not really allowed a post here (going on your thread title) but this is something I have thought quite a bit about so I hope you don't mind!

Basically I believe that a child who is too young to make a concious or informed choice about religion is too young and innocent to be cast out by any God. Therefore the fact that they have not been bought up in a religion should have no effect. Whatever it is you believe will happen to children of your religion is what will happen to children of no religion. IYSWIM?

I hope that makes sense!

I believe children are a gift from God. They do not need to be Christened/baptised into a faith - that is for those of us on earth declaring an intention for the child to be brought up in Faith - for them to return to God should they die.

I think "heaven" is to be with God after death, and hell is to be seperated from him. I can't at all see what a small child could have done in their life that would count as rejection of God, so, FWIW, I believe they would go to be with him, in some sense.

In Islam all children before puberty are considered to be in a state of 'Islam' (ie submission to God) as they cannot make a choice not to be - therefore they all go to heaven if they die.

thank you all for yr replies - much appreciated

difficultdecision - I am not being obtuse for the sake of here, but what would happen if the child had precocious puberty due to hormonal probs? Or severe learning difficulties? Would they still be considered as a child?

Said I wasn't looking for reassurance but reading through replies has made me feel a bit like this.

I make every decision for my child and will continue to do so for all of her life (she has multiple/profound disabilities) I do not have any faith but at times I wonder about how my decisions / convictions will fare for her. If I'm wrong, like.
The image of her sitting on a cloud in heaven is infinitely preferable to anything else as well. Shame I've pulled it all apart in my own head

I guess as an aside to this, it could be very wrong of me to assume that she has no relationship with God just because of all her difficulties. Maybe she's got her own thing going on!

herjazz - in short - yes

Noone can reject Him if they don't have the mental capacity to make serious decisions for themselves or haven't had access to the information to make those decisions.

The worries of making decisions for my son until he can make his own is scary enough - making decisions for someone else their whole life is a huge responsibility so you have my deepest respect! Certainly as far as Islam goes you can't 'sin' for someone else, no baptism is needed and noone is excluded from God's love because of actions of others - people like your daughter would always be considered pure and innocent of any wrong doing - shining lights, full of blessing who should be cherished for who they are (as you quite clearly do!) - every hardship she has in life will be counted as a good deed and raise her higher in heaven (I hope that doesn't sound like I'm disregarding how hard it is for you or justifying her difficulties - it's hard to put into words without sounding a bit weird!)

not weird at all - thankyou