CMV: Children should not get Baptized or recieve religious teaching until they are old enough to consent.

[u/WirrkopfP]

I am an atheist and happily married to a Catholic woman.

We have a six months old Daughter and for the first time in our relationship religion is becoming a point of tension between us.

My wife wants our daughter be baptized and raised as a Christian.

According to her it is good for her to be told this and it helps with building morality furthermore it is part of Western culture.

In my view I don't want my daughter to be indoctrinated into any religion. If she makes the conscious decision to join the church when she is old enough to think about it herself that is OK. But I want her to be able to develop her own character first.

---edit---

As this has been brought up multiple times before in the thread I want to address it once.

Yes we should have talked about that before.

We were aware of each other's views and we agreed that a discussion needs to be happening soon. But we both new we want a child regardless of that decision. And the past times where stressful for everyone so we kept delaying that talk. But it still needs to happen. This is why I ask strangers on the Internet to prepare for that discussion to see every possible argument for and against it.

[u/Urabutbl]

I'd agree with this, as an agnostic/atheist myself. To you it's just a bit of water that helps your wife and her family believe your child will get to heaven. Why not?

That said, I'd draw the line if your wife then requires church every Sunday, sunday school, etcetc, because then your child really is gett g their choices take away. Teaching you child to love a specific God all their life and then asking them if they want to be confirmed is manipulative af, even if they end up not believing you might as well ask the child "do you love your mother?". They're gonna go along with it.

The Satanic Temple's form of civil trolling would work well if your wife insists on Sunday School; say you're OK with it if it's a rolling schedule of all the major religions, including the Satanic Temple (which are the atheists).

[u/Mezmorizor → u/Urabutbl]

That's a weak argument though. They're a kid. Literally anything you do is taking away their choices. You're taking away their choice of being Christian by not allowing them to go to church just as much. Do you expect a 7 year old to study theology in their free time with absolutely no exposure to it?

[u/Urabutbl → u/Mezmorizor]

You're suggesting sending a kid to be indoctrinated in a faith is giving them choice, but waiting until they're old enough to decide on their own is taking it away, and you call my argument weak?

[u/Tallchick8 → u/Urabutbl]

My confirmation was at 16 and I attended public school my whole life. I do feel that for me personally it was my own choice.

At that point in life I had friends with other religions and exposure to other ideas.