RE: Atheism and religious ceremonies/education
June 30, 2014 at 9:18 pm
(This post was last modified: June 30, 2014 at 9:23 pm by ThomM.)
(June 28, 2014 at 9:42 am)blackout94 Wrote: Tomorrow I'm having a baptism of my 2 year old little brother as a part of the catholic church (he is 19 years younger than me), my question being, how should an atheist behave in such ceremonies? If the priest asks me about my 'faith', should I be straightforward or lie about it to avoid compromising the ceremonial? I already refused to be my little brother's godfather because I had to do my religious education, something my parents never put me into (despite being catholic they never liked churches and priests)
My second question is, should I allow my family to give religious education in the future (in a few years ahead) to my little brother? I wouldn't mind if it was given by my mother, since the same happened to me and she didn't teach me to fear hell and the indoctrination basically didn't exist. But should I allow official religious church education? I'm not very sure about those but I'm sure if I opposed my mother would understand and avoid giving such education. What are your views on this?
I hope this is supposed to be in the Christianity forums since it's related to catholicism
1 - YOU are not having a Baptism - your parents are (unless YOU have personal custody of the child - it is NOT your decision)
2 - Same with religious education - that is the decision of the people who have legal custody. If they did not put you through the education - why do you expect them to put your brother into it?
If your parents never liked Churches and Priests - how are they arranging the baptism to begin with? Do they donate money to the church?
AS far as what your mother would do - IF she asks for your opinion - I see no reason why you would say something against your own personal beliefs.
And when it comes to being a "Godfather" - it has NO legal position in the world we live in. It WAS at one time a way to designate a person who would continue the child's religious education if the child lost their parents - but has NOTHING to do with legal custody of the child if that should happen. Since it is the person with legal custody who would make that decision - you could offer to be your brother's legal guardian - in the event of a catastrophe (Your parents should have made a will out when YOU were born - if nothing else - but to name such a guardian in that event)
