Baptism??

DrBaz

Hello all,

Just a quick question…

Would you baptise your child if both parents are card carrying atheists?
Would it be fair on kids if they missed out on their communion money

Rev Hellfire

We baptised one of ours since it was advantageous when looking to enrol them into the school we wanted, plus we got a nice piss up out of it.
The other we didn't bother since there was no pressing reason for them to, school wasn't a problem.

Its worth doing in order to play the system sometimes.

anti-venom

Under no circumstances. It should be a no-brainer for atheists.

Flamed Diving

Its only a cultural ceremony.

Rev Hellfire

anti-venom wrote: »

Under no circumstances. It should be a no-brainer for atheists.

Care to explain why. If its all makey uppy then it makes no difference what so ever if you do or if you don't. If its to your advantage to do it then do it, if not then don't. Simple as.

Its not like Dawkins shall smite thee down for mingling with the believers.

robindch

DrBaz wrote: »

Would you baptise your child if both parents are card carrying atheists?

Baptized? Nope, no more than I'd have my daughter Bat Mitzvah'd. RH's point is worth bearing in mind though -- since the religious institutions still control access to most schools, a certificate of religious ownership might be useful later on, in the likely event that an invisible, but priestly, hand is tempted to rearrange the school access queue.

DrBaz wrote: »

Would it be fair on kids if they missed out on their communion money

If they go to a non-denominational or irreligious school, then the question doesn't really arise since the churches don't have access to the kids through the school. Anyhow, to True Believers (tm) I'd have thought that religious trinkets -- bibles, concordances, lives of the saints, pieces of the one true cross and so on -- are much more appropriate gifts than money

But, hey, "card-carrying atheists"? Where can I get these cards?

MrPudding

We got 3 of our kids baptised, more to keep the families happy than anything else. Number 4 has not been done yet, and I quite like the idea of having a naming ceremony. The whole baptism thing did not really bother me, as the Rev says, what is the harm if it is all made up?

MrP

Galvasean

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Its not like Dawkins shall smite thee down for mingling with the believers.

He won't?

Thank God for that.

5uspect

I don't really see the harm if it were needed to get a child into school (shocking in it own right!), but I would avoid it in principle.

Dades

Gonna close this as there's been loads of discussion on baptism, and most people have already put their cases across.

This thread here was a good one on the subject.

But stick around, DrBaz, and join in the other fun.