The contest for the world's most outrageously inane religion is quite competitive. The relative newcomer, Scientology, is a persistent front-runner, but recent events demonstrate that the Roman Catholic Church isn't settling for second place.

In abandoning the concept of limbo last month, the pope reversed centuries of Roman Catholic teaching, rejected a belief held since medieval times and demonstrated the absurdly irrational nature of religious debate.

Familiarity with essential points of Christian faith is required to understand the "infallible" Catholic Church's long struggle with the concept of limbo.

I discovered a remarkably concise definition of Christianity online and slightly modified it. Christianity is the belief that a resurrected Jewish god-man, who was his own father, will let you live forever in paradise — if you ritualistically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master "so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree."

It almost sounds silly spelled out.

Limbo, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, is the "permanent place" where the souls of unbaptized, dead babies are "excluded from the beatific vision on account of original sin alone."

The souls of all children are blemished by original sin (the evil force emerging in the rib-woman, talking snake and magic tree story). These tainted souls must be washed clean by the supernatural purifying waters of baptism or dead infants can't experience the "beatific vision," which is the "immediate knowledge of God which the angelic spirits and the souls of the just enjoy in Heaven."

This makes some sense when you stop to think about it. We wouldn't want the polluted souls of billions of unbaptized dead babies fouling up the beatific vision for everyone. Existing for all eternity amid a horde of original sin-sullied, screaming newborns doesn't sound like paradise to me.

Although not official dogma, the specifics of limbo have been debated for centuries. In the "pre-Augustinian tradition," the church believed that the punishment of original sin for unbaptized tikes was merely the exclusion of participation in the "beatific vision."

Saint Augustine took more of a ruler-wielding nun's perspective, believing that unbaptized toddlers "share in the common positive misery of the damned." However, he did charitably concede that their punishment would likely be mild, not to include the full "torment of hellfire" where an all-loving god casts sinners "into a furnace of fire" (Matt 13:42).

Eventually, after several centuries, the church softened its attitude, perhaps judging the well-meaning Augustinian approach as a tad harsh for infants. Belief reemerged that a soul besmirched only by original sin would simply suffer "being deprived forever of the vision of God."

Not everyone is a fan of going limbo-less. In 2005, Father Brian W. Harrison, writing in "Seattle Catholic," was concerned that eliminating the concept of limbo would be "irresponsible" and make parents increasingly "lax and negligent about having their children baptized promptly after birth." He wrote, "Limbo is at the 'border' of Hell!"

The Washington Post quoted Kenneth J. Wolfe, a columnist for the traditionalist Catholic newspaper The Remnant, as saying, "The Vatican is suggesting that salvation is possible without baptism. That is heresy."

According to a recent Vatican report on limbo, which prompted the pope's decision, "People find it increasingly difficult to accept that God is just and merciful if he excludes infants, who have no personal sins, from eternal happiness."

In response, the church now believes there are "good reasons to hope that babies who die without being baptized go to heaven."

What a relief.

Centuries ago, with no supporting evidence, the church invented limbo — a fantasy response to the artificial conundrum created by the presumption of original sin. For centuries, Catholics have argued and debated the issue ad nauseam, flip-flopping like a beached trout from one absurd judgment to another.

Now, in what may or may not be conclusive judgment, the pope has banished limbo entirely.

Never, at any time during the centuries of debate, did limbo have any basis in reality, any evidence for or against, or any rational justification for belief but was always treated as though it represented a legitimate issue for careful deliberation.

Bravo, Catholic Church. You win.

John Bice is an MSU staff member and State News columnist. Reach him at bice@msu.edu.