Religious beliefs of Iron Maiden fans

I'm still mildly angry at my parents for not baptising me.

Or, well, not giving me the background and raising me in the stuff. The meanings, the church practice, the stories, the prayers etc. Had to catch up on my own regarding knowledge most of my (modern) ancestors had.

Baptism is useless anyway unless you actually intend to raise the kid in faith as well. Well, not theologically useless, but practically useless anyway. Actually, adult baptism is the main ("standard") form. The reason most of non-anabaptist churches baptise in childhood is because there is the stipulation that the parents will give the child the catechumenate it would normally receive before the "adult" baptism.
And the reason we see the kid-baptism as standard nowadays is just because 1.) in history there was usually not a reason for the parents not to stipulate so - and if I believe, I presume the kid will too and I want the best for him, 2.) from the theological point of view the sooner the baptism the better.

That of course then caused other complications and misunderstanding, such as the ideological separation of baptism and Confirmation, which is unfortunate (it is hard to separate them in theory - though not in practice - and both are among the initiation Sacraments, so it's probably not ideal, but I digress anyway).

However as so many people nowadays are lapsed or staunchly atheist, I personally think we should possibly re-evaluate our view on that - that is which kind of baptism is "standard" and do more of that adult type, as I had. So - weirdly enough - Ariana, if you really are as anti-religious as you say, I'd probably support you in that decision.

Still doesn't make me any less angry at my parents, though. :D
 
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JudasMyGuide said:
Baptism is useless anyway
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We agree on this part.

JudasMyGuide said:
unless you actually intend to raise the kid in faith as well. Well, not theologically useless, but practically useless anyway. Actually, adult baptism is the main ("standard") form. The reason most of non-anabaptist churches baptise in childhood is because there is the stipulation that the parents will give the child the catechumenate it would normally receive before the "adult" baptism.
And the reason we see the kid-baptism as standard nowadays is just because 1.) in history there was usually not a reason for the parents not to stipulate so - and if I believe, I presume the kid will too and I want the best for him, 2.) from the theological point of view the sooner the baptism the better.
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Now you lost me :D
 
That's my logic behind it, actually: I think that a person should be given the right to decide for themselves whether they want to be baptised. So I want to give my daughter that option. (It may sound silly, but it is the very same logic that makes be reject ear-piercing of babies and small girls. I think a child should decide that for themselves.) My mother, on the other hand, believes that if you don't baptise a child, you are vastly increasing the chances of said child growing up as atheist and thus actually pre-determining its religion or lack thereof.

When it comes to traditions on religious holidays (e.g. Christmas, Easter, etc.), I do some very basic things, and none of them are overly religious, but more rooted in pagan times. This is not intentional, though, it just seems that pagan traditions are more catchy and persistent.
 
Even though I grew up to reject many aspects of Catholicism, I don't consider the religious aspect of my upbringing to have been a predominantly negative aspect of my life.
My mother's faith played a large role in who she was and I greatly respected who she was.

I felt the church was enough a part of the culture and heritage of our family that exposure to it — as opposed to indoctrination into it — was a worthwhile endeavour.
My wife largely felt the same way and it's been a philosophy — "here's what this thing is, what do you think?" — we've generally tried to follow in many areas of raising our kids.

I agree about letting kids make up their own minds. In my mind baptism was more about the church welcoming them, not them welcoming it.
 
As an adult, I have found out that my dad was very much against the idea of me being baptized, while my mother wished to appease her family members. In fact, dad was asked to take communion at my baptism, and he rejected it by telling the priest "No thanks, I'm a godless heathen."
 
Same. I was raised as a Baptist, where they believe that baptism is something you have to decide for yourself.

In a way, I'm kinda glad I was raised the way I was, because it means I understand the Bible and Christianity, which are both pretty fascinating actually, and I can hold a discussion with others on the topic. On the other hand, when you disagree with your family on certain things, it's not always pleasant. :D
 
Funny thing about my dad is that he was not religious at all when we were kids. But his brother and parents were and, in the case of my uncle, still is deeply religious. My dad became a born again Christian and is now very Christian.

My mum was never that religious either, yet her family was sort of, but not overly. She has now finding she's leaning towards Buddhism.

As I was not brought up in a religious home, I have no care for religion. But if you want to worship a deity, knock yourself out. It's your life. :)
 
On the issue of baptism.... I would not give my hypothetical children a choice in that. It is such an integral part of Catholicism that I just can't forego it. As my mother says, better safe than sorry, religious people were right, cool, atheists were right, no harm done. But the other rituals, first communion, confirmation, marriage in the church vs. a civil union, etc. That I would want them to have a choice in. They have to understand what they are participating in and why. Do they agree with it? do they believe in it? That's important. What if they become atheist? Buddhist? Satanists? They should explore and be informed, regardless of what they eventually settle on.
 
LooseCannon said:
As an adult, I have found out that my dad was very much against the idea of me being baptized, while my mother wished to appease her family members. In fact, dad was asked to take communion at my baptism, and he rejected it by telling the priest "No thanks, I'm a godless heathen."
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My dad was never baptized and never went to church the whole time I was growing up. Never heard Mom push him into going.
He loves music and plays guitar. Sometime in my 20s or 30s, mom roped him in to playing with her choir and that evolved into playing with them regularly on Sundays.
Mom died five years ago. Dad continues to be a regular churchgoer. Still not baptized.
Not sure if she won or not.
 
I was baptized as a baby.

My dad is an atheist (dunno when he became one though) and my mom is supposedly religious but apart from regular fasting days around the holidays that pretty much every sheep does here she does literally nothing else religious. So I presume that baptism thing was pressure from grandparents + sheep mentality.

Mom's grandparents almost never go to church apart from major holidays and even then I'm not sure. Same goes for dad's grandparents', although when grandma died, my grandpa who was born Catholic (while grandma was Orthodox) started going to both the Catholic and Orthodox church regularly. He's a double agent now, not sure he tells people in one church he goes to the other :P Also neither grandparents even had a slava! In elementary and high school everyone gets a free day off for your family's slava and I was the only person in my high school class who didn't have one.

So my family is what I like to call sheep-religious. Despite this, whenever I say I don't want to get married in a church, baptize my kids or get buried with any religious bullshit (This is just in case I kick the bucket before them :P; I actually wanna get cryo-frozen in case they figure out how to move my brain to another body, but that's another story...), they tell me "Yeah, right, pls, everyone does it and you're gonna do it too, stfu". :P
 
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