Should I christin(Baptise) my kid

[SlowwHand]

You go to a site packed with Atheists, to ask for validation of Agnostic/Atheist beliefs you hold ?

Change the scenario a little.
If you found out you were to die today, you'd have no qualms knowing that your wife and your mother were planning an elaborate Church ceremony, complete with not merely a headstone, but a full size statue of a religious nature, emgraved with somethng, I don't know, like "Here Lies Stinger. Finally Home With His Creator".

After all, they're believers, and shouldn't feel like hypocrites. Right?

[Dinner]

It won't do any harm and it might make your mother and wife happy.

[SlowwHand]

He doesn't care if they're happy. He said that already.

[Dinner]

Well, then he is sounding very stubburn and why ask us if he's already made up his mind?

[TheStinger]

I haven't made up my mind at all.

I just thought there must be some heathens amongst you who had had their kids baptized.

Lets face it in the end my wife and Mum are gonna have a veto over any decision i want

[Edan]

I think this is a decision you and your wife need to make together. Thats the only advice I can give.

[Jack the Bodiless]

Originally posted by TheStinger
Lets face it in the end my wife and Mum are gonna have a veto over any decision i want

Will they insist on dragging the kid off to church every week, and enrolling him/her into Sunday School and so forth?

If not, then it's your wife who has to tell a pack of lies to the vicar. And the godparents, of course.

But I still don't know if you will be asked about your own beliefs. I know many vicars won't marry a non-Christian in church (even to a Christian).

You might be able to use it as a bargaining counter: "I'll go along with this, if YOU agree not to make the kid go to church or Sunday School".

[Dr. A. Cula]

I think you should. Reasons:

1) Make your wife happy (very important)
2) Make your mother happy
3) Avoid long, useless discussions with zealots who will refuse to understand why you didn't do it
4) Just in case...

[Dauphin]

My 2¢.

I think it better to have a religious upbringing in full awareness of its flaws, than to have an areligious upbringing and deride it without understanding it.

Standing up and saying will instruct him in the ways of the church and GOD is a blatant lie as i will bore him stupid telling him how much crap teh church talks.

Don't say that, agree with the priest or vicar a wording that is suitable and acceptable to you.

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by Jack the Bodiless

Will they insist on dragging the kid off to church every week, and enrolling him/her into Sunday School and so forth?

If not, then it's your wife who has to tell a pack of lies to the vicar. And the godparents, of course.

But I still don't know if you will be asked about your own beliefs. I know many vicars won't marry a non-Christian in church (even to a Christian).

You might be able to use it as a bargaining counter: "I'll go along with this, if YOU agree not to make the kid go to church or Sunday School".

My Mum stopped going to church after my Dad died and my wife doesn't go so they wouldn't make him go. Its more a tradition thing.

The other(agin hypocritical thing) is that church schools are generally better than stae ones and it is a big help to get them in if they are christened

[Jack the Bodiless]

According to this article, "only 21% of infants born during 1999 were baptized into the Church".

So "it's normal, everyone else does it" wouldn't work.

I think it better to have a religious upbringing in full awareness of its flaws, than to have an areligious upbringing and deride it without understanding it.

It's quite possible to teach a kid about religion without having to pretend that you believe in it.

I would be proud to raise an atheistic kid who knows more about Christianity than any Christian he meets.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Are you actually going to stand up to your wife over this?

Pick your battles carefully, my friend, pick your battles .

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Jack the Bodiless
It's quite possible to teach a kid about religion without having to pretend that you believe in it.

I don't disagree but by analogy living in a country teaches you more than reading about it.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by TheStinger
The other(agin hypocritical thing) is that church schools are generally better than stae ones and it is a big help to get them in if they are christened

Then it is obviously in the best interests of you child to have it done. As a parent why wouldn't you do something which might help your child's future especially if there is so little down side? Not doing it sounds like personal pride which normally isn't a good way to make choices.

[Jack the Bodiless]

He could simply lie about having had his kid christened.

Why is this any worse than lying during the ceremony itself?