In Christianity there is a ceremony known as a christening or baptism. Its when a person officially becomes a Christian, the way this happens is a priest or vicar or whatever blesses the person with holy water. The same thing happens to Jesus when John the Baptist performs this ceremony in the river Jordan.



I'm going to one of these today, not for myself of course but for a member of my family. Whilst I may not agree I'm all about accepting others beliefs and supporting their ideas. The thing is that its a baby being christened and I must say I'm not really sure whether a baby should become a member of a religion before it has an opportunity to chose for itself.

Hell I know if I could have chosen my religion as a child I'd be a Hindu, all those cool animal gods with six or eight arms... That'd be awesome.

I totally agree with you.

I wonder if they have these sorts of entry ceremonies in other religions. I know that the Bar Mitzvah in Judaism is about becoming a man but not really about becoming a Jew.

Paganism has one.

Yes you are right. But in my opinion you can change religion after it if you want. It is not a chain. Many of my friends have been bapticed and now they dont even believe in god.

gustanak wrote:

Yes you are right. But in my opinion you can change religion after it if you want. It is not a chain. Many of my friends have been bapticed and now they dont even believe in god.

That's exactly what happened to me. My parents baptised me as a baby but I later rebelled against that and am now an atheist.

i think when you are younger and forced to do a religious thing such as go to church you tend to be against that particular thing or anything you are forced to do as a child it is really sad that parents force theyre children into a religion without giving the child a chance in its own decisions

I found this about Hindu 'baptism'

Once the child enters the world, Jatakarma is performed to welcome the child into the family, by putting some honey in the child's mouth and whispering the name of God in the child's ear.

Other rituals include a naming ceremony (Namakarna), the Nishkarmana (the child's first trip out) and the Annaprasana, (the child's first taste of solid food).

The ear-piercing ceremony (Karnavedha) and first haircut (Mundan) ceremonies are also considered highly significant.

I was baptized as a baby, too!   

I'm surprised that my parent's didn't baptize me or my brothers, but I really respect that. They said that they didn't want to force us into church and into their religion (which they actually did afterwards). Most of my cousins were baptized but their parent's are not and were not christian's and I've been thinking is that/was that just some tradition even if you are not religious people.

You're right, it became like a first-thing-first thing. I really liked it how your parents did the opposite. That is what I would do.

You are right about hindu cereminies mark. But im of a view that one should not change their relegion. You are born in that family in that relegion for a reason.

Haddock wrote:

I'm surprised that my parent's didn't baptize me or my brothers, but I really respect that. They said that they didn't want to force us into church and into their religion (which they actually did afterwards). Most of my cousins were baptized but their parent's are not and were not christian's and I've been thinking is that/was that just some tradition even if you are not religious people.

This is what I think, that nobody should be forced to join a religion befor ethey are old enough to make an informed decision.

Is it that even though I was baptized as a baby, but never gotten a chance to go to church from then to now? We kept trying now, but we always overslept until 9:30 or 10:00. U wouldn't blame us b/c it's Sunday, right?