Limbo babies
If you were listening to Radio 4 this morning, you'd have heard a very powerful documentary on , presented by Olivia O'Leary and produced in Northern Ireland by Ophelia Byrne (who is the project manager for our Blueprint natural history series). The programme includes some extremely haunting stories from women who have experienced the dark side of this theological concept. If you missed it, you listen again here.
Comments
It was always one of the most pathetic concepts in religious thought. Similarly to the teaching on suicide, it causes unnecessary suffering for those already heartbroken at the loss of a child.
Why on earth would a loving God send unborn children to limbo? What was the purpose? There are lots of quite silly ideas in the bible that suggest it was made up from the imagination of human beings, and this was one of them.
I'm astounded that people think this is a good way to conduct the matter of forming a belief system: to take the word of whatever church tradition says and when they change their minds unquestioningly follow suit. Yet this very question goes to the centre of why most people believe most things: because others do. I've never understood it and yet it's responsible for the way the cards are stacked in politics and religion everywhere, from trendy leftwing liberal credo to staunch rightwing conservative moralising.