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Infants, aborted babies, mentally challenged people and scores of others all are most definately in heaven. While none of these have made a verbal commitment to accept Jesus, there would be no God of mercy if he damned a 5 month old child, or a person incapable of thinking properly, or mentally challenged people, or those who never come across the Bible.
I hope you understand that your answer, while kind and compassionate, is wholly unsatisfying and pretty unscriptural. Of course, I got used to hearing it when I was growing up in church, and I accepted it (because there is no real alternative that doesn't make God into a complete monster) but he never promises it in the Bible... never even suggests it.
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However most people do get to decide. Some don't and they still enter heaven. Is that a dodge? I'll deal with Bible descrepencies later.
So what is the minimum age? What is the minimum IQ? I guess my answer to your question (yes, I know, you weren't asking me specifically) is
yes, it looks like a shameless dodge to an "outsider," even one who has formerly understood and accepted the reasoning. Intelligence is a continuum (actually several of them, according to modern knowledge) and so is age. There is no clear dividing line, and the only way to appear compassionate is to excuse everyone who appears to qualify. Hence the blanket redemption of babies, the disabled, the ignorant, and so forth. Of course, there are the people who believe that hundreds of generations of unfortunate pagans are all writhing in agony as I type because they dared to be born across the sea from the birthplace of Christianity. Predestination, they say. God's will. The older I get, the more I live, the less
either of these pronunciations appeal to my sense of reason.
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