Would a feral child go to hell?

[MysticalChicken]

I was thinking about this earlier.  Most--if not all--Christians believe that in order to go to heaven, you have to believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and came back to life three days later.  But what about people who had no human contact at all in their lives--in other words, feral children?  There have been documented cases of children raised by animals--usually wolves--and found by humans, captured, and raised in civilization.  But I think there must have been cases where the feral child was not ever found by humans and died without ever seeing another of its kind.  If there were a god, would he be like "Yeah, I know you were raised by marmosets and all, but still, you should have accepted me as your savior even though, um, you would have had absolutely no possible knowledge of my existence.  Because somehow I failed to instill in humans the knowledge that they are human, if not raised by other humans.  My bad.  Anyway, you're still going to hell.  Have fun down there."  Which brings me to another point.  If there is a god, why didn't he create humans with an innate knowledge of their humanity?  In other words, if a human is raised by other humans s/he will act human.  If s/he is raised by wolves, s/he will act like a wolf.  If s/he is raised by three-toed sloths, s/he will act like a three-toed sloth.  And so on.  Which brings me to a third point, and that is that humans are, in fact, essentially apes.  We may be the most intelligent (and even that's debatable, to me) of all the primates, but we still have a tendency to mimic what we see and hear around us.  (Case in point:  the Macarena.  :doubt: *shudders*  Some of us mimicked less than others.)

Anyway, back to my first point (would a feral child go to hell).  Since I don't believe hell exists anyway (the dozens of "I WENT TO HELL AND CAME BACK AND IT'S REALLY REALLY REALLY HORRIBLE" stories I've read online notwithstanding), this question is purely hypothetical, but even so, I can't answer it myself.  However, this is one more reason I can't believe in a god--what sort of deity would consign humans to perdition if they didn't know he existed at all?  A really sadistic one, that's what kind.

[Will]

Hypothetically, no. The same would be true in Islam and Judaism. Feral = fucked.

Fortunately, there's no such thing as heaven (unless you've learned how to get your beagle to stop barking) and hell (if he's still barking).

Hold on, my dog is barking.

[donkeyhoty]

South Park handled this, but instead of feral they choose handicapped e.g. Timmy.  Oddly enough the 2-part episode was called, "Do the handicapped go to Hell? / Probably."

[SteveS]

Ah - one of my favorite religious sentiments: "Everybody goes to hell!!!!  Except me, because I'm good --- but the rest of you are screwed!!!!"

Its actually quite juvenile in my opinion - and let's face it - these people are thrilled at the prospect of having one over on everybody else.  They actually want other people in hell!  How sick is that?

[MysticalChicken]

Alls I can say is that if there really is an afterlife, I hope I go where Ann Coulter isn't.

[jcm]

I think it all depends on what Christian flavor you like the best. There are different views on what happens to your soul after you die if you are born a vegetable or a retard. I think Catholics are the most brutal. Even a rich white smart healthy baby who dies before being saved goes straight to hell. Poor little guy. There are many different ways a Christians look at feral children, but this is very confusing to me. In Christianity, wouldn’t there be a “right” way. Some Baptists think all babies who die young go straight to heaven and other think they go to some kind of waiting area. I personally think they don’t go anywhere, but what do I know?

[SteveS]

And Tommy doesn't know what day it is.  He doesn't know who Jesus was, or what praying is.  How can he be saved from the eternal grave?

[jcm]

Yeah but he sure plays a mean pinball..."His disciples lead him in
And he just does the rest." Maybe Tommy is Jesus.

[SteveS]

I always got a kick out of that lyric - and it seems apropos to the conversation.  Did anyone try to explain to Helen Keller how to "save herself"?  These sorts of ridiculous questions only make sense to religious literalists, or so it seems to me.

[MysticalChicken]

I've always been interested in Helen Keller, ever since I was very young, and I know that she believed in Swedenborgianism.  I don't quite know what that is, I have to look it up on Wikipedia or something.

[SteveS]

Yikes!  That's the very religion my recent ancestor's in Canada follow!  I just posted this on the Intro thread when I was discussing with SabineMaia - here's the Wiki on the Swedenborg guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Swedenborg

My relatives referred to it as the "New Church".

A number of years ago I was actually in a big cathedral in Byrn Athyn Pennsylvania that this new church group built.  They had a bunch of info on Swedenborg - he seemed like an interesting person in that he had made many inventions of an engineering ilk; then latter in life he wrote a bunch of religious works - which always reminded me uncomfortably of L Ron Hubbard.

I guess life's a bitch for these guys - you lead an interesting, intelligent life, then age, go bat-shit crazy and found a new religion, then die.  Happens all the time  :wink: