Here are the assumptions about Catholic dogma I am operating under, without them the argument makes no sense and can be dismissed by simply correcting my misstatement(s):
1. Life begins at conception, specifically when the sperm fertilizes the egg
2. In order to enter heaven, a soul must be cleansed via baptism, mass and last rites etc.
Here are some scientific assumptions (these I'm more sure of):
1. Not all fertilizations result in a full term (or remotely close to full term) pregnancy. A significant number of fertilized eggs even fail to implant in the wall of the uterus
2. Fertilized embryos that do not implant cease developing and are spontaneously aborted
3. Spontaneous abortions are fairly common before any pregnancy is detected
Well I think you see where this is going:
What happens to all the souls of all the embryos? I think purgatory would be pretty crowded if all those little two celled tykes cant get past St. Peter.
Edit: found a good site that defines catholic conception. It seems pretty consistent with my point.
http://www.catholicmatch.com/pl/page...tml?ra=1;id=89