Happy Atheist Forum

Get your own unofficial debaptism certificate here:
http://www.secularism.org.uk/debaptism.html (http://www.secularism.org.uk/debaptism.html)

News article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -baby.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5132964/Atheist-wins-right-to-have-baptism-removed-as-he-did-not-consent-as-a-baby.html)

Right...

I don't get it.
(and I won't get it either),
JoeActor

That's a bit silly. It seems more antitheist than atheist.

Ha. Good stuff.
The way I figure it though, baptism doesn't mean anything to me, so there's no reason for me to get de-baptized. It seems like a meaningless gesture for a meaningless gesture.

Same thing as god doesn't exist, so there's no reason for me to hate him/her/it.

I don't see the point in bothering over something that means nothing to me.  

I have, however, been taken off the membership records at my childhood church (along with most of my family).  Apparently if you don't go they send you a letter stating that if you don't start showing up they'll take you off the membership record.  I didn't care, so I didn't show up.  I was still kind of a believer when they did that too...it was very impersonal of them and another nail in the coffin for my then growing suspicion that  most churches don't actually care about the people.

QuoteObviously, our irreverent certficate of debaptism is a bit of fun.
After all, the concept of baptism is a complete fantasy that has no meaning outside the heads of the religious. However, many people do wish to make an official break from the church.
Read a collection of letters we have received on the subject of official debaptism.

They say here it's just to have fun.

The point is, now talking about official de-baptism (or apostasy) this may not be senseless stuff. Ok, at least where I live, the (Catholic) Church keeps records of who is baptized and when. I am not really sure about it (some people say so and others deny it) but it seems that the Church gets a sum of money from the state which is proportional to the number of people in their stats. That would mean the Church is getting some money because you (or me btw) count as baptized and member of the Church. In any case, I'd better not be part of their numbers. (Remember that in the Catholic Church you must be baptized and confessed to be able to make the communion).

The problem is they make it really hard for you to get your apostasy, last year there were a few hundred apostasy applications in my hometown and none of them were successful. It's curious that the Church doesn't "let you go". Imagine that some magazine or social club refused to cancel your subscription when you ask for it... they saying that you really don't want to cancel it but you haven't realised yet

Damn my English is rusty

It's utter nonsense (except wanting to be off the church's rolls), but hey, if I'm in a room with a few skeptics and a blow dryer, who knows what might happen.  

Oh, and your English is fine.

Yeah I have to agree with everyone else here except for a tiny addition. What if you were basicly brainwashed and coerced into being baptised. What if you spent most of you life thus far repressed by a malicious culture which you truly had no place in? Couldn't this "antibaptism" help you get some closure once you finally escaped? I'm from tennessee(Loads of christians here.) I've had to fight for my freedom from christianity since I was four years old. My dad told me there was this big invisible guy watching me all the time. I thought on it a few days, looked for the guy, and said "No there's not.". My dad spent most of the next ten year trying to convert me. He would whip me, yell at me, and threaten me with an eternity of torture in hell on a weekly basis(Parents are divorced. Had to visit him every weekend to hear this crap. He also drinks a lot.). I eventually pulled a shotgun on him.(He kept backhanding me and I was too afraid to stab him with my pocket knife.) The whole experience was a rebirth for me. I lived in fear of him up until that point. On some level I actually believed he was invincible(He said things to this effect a lot). I had terrifying nightmares of shooting or stabbing him only to find that he wouldn't die. So one day at 14 I snapped. I loaded my 12 guage, stood up and had an epithany. "Nothing is forever. Life's not worth living unless you're truly free." Any fear I had of dieing, suffering, or hell actually existing vanished in that moment. My resolve became infinite. Dad saw me coming down the hall with the gun and tried to bluff me into putting it down(He said something but I didn't hear it.). He must have saw something in my eyes that let him know the games were over cause he ran out the door and called my mom to come get me while my brother and step mom wrestled my gun away. Haven't went to see him sense.

Sorry for the depressing trailer trash story. I'm just trying to show you why some of us might take this religion issue as more than just light banter. I'm sure there are others who have strong emotions about their beliefs too and an antibaptism might help this sort of person deal with their emotional issues.(I never let them get me Our church insisted one that you be willing to recieve baptism and two that you go to a special class/group for a few weeks so you would know exactly what baptism was about. Not all christians are bad.)

Debaptism gives the false impression that saying words over a baby with minimal sentience ever meant something in the first place.

Well it does mean something if they get money from the state, don't you think?

Quote from: "pedricero matao"Well it does mean something if they get money from the state, don't you think?

Yes - for that scenario, it's probably a good thing...