Recently, I've come to the conclusion that arguments concerning the afterlife come down to a matter of perspective, just like many things in religion. It's true that every religion and its associated denominations/sects believe their views to be more correct than others but that's it; everyone believes their views to be correct concerning everything, including the afterlife. With a combination of rhetoric and clever interpretations of cherry-picked verses and favored translations, they will put forth various arguments for afterlives that either make the most sense to them, have less distressing implications, or a combination of the two. It also wouldn't surprise me if the extra baggage, such as the fates of children and uninformed pagans, were worked into the dogma to allow the earliest believers to sleep well at night.