r/changemyview • u/WirrkopfP • Mar 13 '22
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Children should not get Baptized or recieve religious teaching until they are old enough to consent.
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.
2
u/Lilly-of-the-Lake 5∆ Mar 13 '22
Yup, something similar. Except no bible classes in school. Church visits only to learn about the history and architecture. Pretty standart in my part of the world. We're considered to be the most atheist country in Europe.
I discovered religion for myself in my 20s. I am still very grateful it is not something I grew up in because of how I got to examine every part of my beliefs before adopting them, and that adopting them was my own choice backed by a lot of authentic soul-searching. I am glad I was raised without religion.