I was christened as a baby and haven't believed in any religion since I can remember.
I never went to church etc..
I was wondering is there any way I can formally renounce the attachment to Church Of England that I have due to being christened??

Strange question I know but my husband says I can't be an Atheist because I was christened and am technically Church of England even though I haven't believed in it at all or ever practiced it.

Doesn't the C.O.E. require witnessing like the Catholics? In the catholic church you can write a letter to the bishop of the part you live in stating you leave the catholic church.

If you can truthfully say to yourself "I don't believe in a god or gods" then you are an atheist. Simple as that.

I'm afraid that your husband is wrong!

I don't think that the church do any form of anti-christening apart for ex-communication but that's a catholic thing and pretty middle ages stuff.

Darwinian, I have a standard form letter for "uittreden" (leaving, departing) from the Roman Catholic Church.

Really.. I didn't know that such a thing existed.

They made that form specifically for the fact that the RCC (not to be confused with my teamname) gets state funding based on its list of congregation members, and even when non-believers never attend church, their record in the baptised-list is enough to claim those funds. So if you don't want that you can have your data stricken from their list. It's an administrative affair, but then again so is being baptised for them.

(December 17, 2008 at 2:15 pm)EmmaM Wrote: (Snip)

Strange question I know but my husband says I can't be an Atheist because I was christened and am technically Church of England even though I haven't believed in it at all or ever practiced it.

You can be an atheist even if you were baptized, confirmed ect ect.

As an atheist you don't believe in god or gods. Baptism means nothing if you don't believe it.

I have seen this thing where atheists would set up a de-baptism thing.

(December 17, 2008 at 2:15 pm)EmmaM Wrote: Strange question I know but my husband says I can't be an Atheist because I was christened and am technically Church of England even though I haven't believed in it at all or ever practiced it.

Your husband is very very very very wrong. The CofE doesn't control what you believe, and I was christened like yourself. Back when I was a boy I thought I'd been blessed by Jesus etc, until I realised what really had happened:

An elderly man poured water on my head in front of a large crowd of people.

Simple as that. Religions aren't jobs that you join and have to tell someone you are leaving, they are organisations that you join because you believe what they believe (or are forced into it) and you can leave at any time. Seriously, if you are an atheist how can they possibly have any control over you? It's not like God is going to smite you for not telling them you left...for the obvious reason.

On second thoughts, I've just thought of something extremely fun we could do as a forum.

Hold onto your hats folks...I'll be back.

* Rob sits by his keyboard in anticipation.