Babies and Afterlife

August 11, 2012 11:51 AM

For those that believe in afterlife but aren't religious, what happens to babies after death?

This is a question for those that aren't into organized religion or atheist but rather for those who have somewhat their own belief.

First, let me tell you what I believe. I want to say I am agnostic because I don’t think you can prove there is a God and you cannot prove there isn’t in my opinion. I am leaning more towards that there is no God, but I’m not sure. Even if there is a God, it’s not the image I have in mind of what most organized religions would believe it to be like human form or whatever. Maybe it’s just some cosmic energy or force…I don’t know.

What I do believe is that there has to be more to this than our life. I don’t think that it just stops at death and there is no more. I’m not sure what it is afterward but it may be something that our mind can possibly not comprehend, it may be some state of happiness, etc.



But then, I think of babies that die young. It has me puzzled. Do they continue to think like babies? Do they have another chance at life? What are your beliefs/theories?

posted by Asian_Hunnie to Religion & Philosophy (6 answers total)

Response by poster: This is not a debate on whether an afterlife exists. So for those who believe in it please explain.
posted by Asian_Hunnie at 11:56 AM on August 11, 2012

How about it's like reincarnation, where all of the capacities of an adult who has lived an infinity of previous lives are there but suppressed or inaccessible to the baby while alive, but are accessible beyond the Earthly realm.

By asking for open speculation rather than information about particular belief systems I think this may qualify as chatfilter, unfortunately.
posted by XMLicious at 11:59 AM on August 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I believe that we live many lives, then between lives we go to a waiting room to hang out until the next life. Life itself is an RPG.

So while we wait we reconnect with our companions in the game, eat some Dorritos, and then get ourselves together for the next game.

So the souls who had such a short game that they died as babies, they come back to the waiting room and get a new "throw".

I'm very weird.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:04 PM on August 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I believe that souls choose their lives here on Earth, and sometimes things go wrong, like they accidentally get put in the wrong body, so they have to "reboot," and sometimes a soul is supposed to go to a family, but that soul isnt ready yet, so that's why the baby dies. That soul goes back up to the "waiting room" to try again. I am not religious but I do believe in some sort of an after/before life.
posted by katypickle at 12:12 PM on August 11, 2012

Response by poster: So if there wasn't reincarnation then what do you think would happen to the baby's spirit/soul and their thinking? Hypothetically speaking of course since we don't know for sure what happens. I am open to the idea of reincarnation but I'm trying to see a different side.
posted by Asian_Hunnie at 12:25 PM on August 11, 2012

A colleague of mine suggested that the next life was something completely unfathomable to us. Just like a child in the womb cannot understand what life in our world is like, we similarly don't have the capabilities to understand what the next world is like. Maybe, like babies, we hear some echoes of sounds or other stimuli from the "outside world", but it is merely a glimpse and nothing compared to the whole thing.

Of all of the ideas of the afterlife/next life, this has been my favorite, as a person terrified of both oblivion and eternity.

But, to be honest, I'm not sure what would happen to babies in this situation. Maybe they just move directly on to the next part, but I guess there's also the option of them being like a miscarriage, which does seem kind of depressing. Um. Maybe they get to try again from the beginning.
posted by that girl at 12:29 PM on August 11, 2012