Atheists choose 'de-baptism' to renounce childhood faith

[pepperbear]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-07-21-atheists-debaptism_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

Up until last summer, Jennifer Gray of Columbus, Ohio, considered herself "a weak Christian" whose baptism at age 11 in a Kentucky church came to mean less and less to her as she gradually lost faith in God.
Then the 32-year-old medical transcriptionist took a decisive step, one that previously hadn't been available. She got "de-baptized."

In a type of mock ceremony that's now been performed in at least four states, a robed "priest" used a hairdryer marked "reason" in an apparent bid to blow away the waters of baptism once and for all. Several dozen participants then fed on a "de-sacrament" (crackers with peanut butter) and received certificates assuring they had "freely renounced a previous mistake, and accepted Reason over Superstition."

[MercutioATC]

1. Ah, wonderful. Participate in a silly rite to protest silly rites.

I was baptized and am now atheist. I don't view a man in a dress dumping water on my head when I was a baby as something that needs to be somehow "undone".

[Skittles]

11. I agree

[snake in the grass]

15. I agree as well.

What's the point, except if one wanted to make a satire of the whole deal, and even that would be too dumb for me. 75% of my life until now (I'm 44) was wasted with religious nonsense. I'm happy to be away from it. I need another bogus ceremony in my life like I need a goiter.

[chaplainM]

2. I'm trying to imagine

...an analogous procedure for regaining one's virginity.

[bemildred]

3. I'm sure something could be arranged for the right price. nt

[MercutioATC]

5. Actually, that requires surgery....

http://www.revirgination.net/

[Fearless]

4. Doesn't the necessity of a de-baptism create a false sanctity for actual baptism?

By having to denounce it doesn't it show that they put some credence in it's existence on some level in the first place? In short... this is idiotic.

[lindisfarne]

9. +1

[ejpoeta]

6. I was raised catholic, but don't feel i need to resort to this to not be catholic.

i figure that since i had no say in any baptism, it doesn't count. how can you opt in to something when you can't even talk yet!! but that's just me. i am content to not go to church and to not have my kids baptized and not to participate in religious bs. i figure when the kids grow up they can choose it if they want, though i hope they don't. Religion depends on people not asking questions and believing what you are told.... i want my kids to ask lots of questions and never just take someones word for it.

[Warpy]

7. That's how I feel about it

I stomped off in sheer disgust at the age of 10 and rarely look back.

People who want that sort of thing are welcome to it, but it wasn't for me, and as soon as I could make it stick, I was gone.

And that's enough.

[ejpoeta]

8. LOL! i agree. and i feel that you somehow would give it validity if you

went through all that to try to ex baptize yourself. no thanks. I wasn't ten when I left, as i went to catholic school and such... but i questioned a lot and found they don't like you asking questions. i remember having a 9th grader ask me what made me turn away from god when his repeated asking me to go to church with him kept getting no thanks.... i went off on him about how he couldn't possibly know what he was talking about and how you can't believe in something until you question it. he never asked me again after that. LOL! i was a senior at the time.

[Cartoonist]

10. I was raised catholic, too.

Baptism was my parents idea, not mine. I also don't feel my receiving of Holy Communion or Confirmation was my idea either, seeing as how I was brainwashed from birth to believe that stuff. I achieved my own identity the day I cast aside all that stuff and began to think for myself.

Now, I think two of the worst concepts humanity has to offer are Tradition and Ceremony, and it's not just limited to religion.

[bertman]

12. If you don't believe in it, why would you need to go through a ceremony to not believe in it?

More symbolism.

This is too funny.

And I'm a non-believer who was baptised Southern Baptist. That's called dunkin' where I come from.

[provis99]

13. great. a bunch of atheists who have missed the frickin' point.

Will they now have ceremonies to denounce beliefs in fairies and unicorns, too?

[RainDog]

14. huh?

:rofl: