Stop Trampling Babies

Small correction. Anyone who baptizes their babies don’t dunk them in a vat of water. Usually, the preist/Rev. cups their hand and pours water over the crown of their head.
.-= Jonathan Weyer´s last blog ..Twitter for the book =-.

What a sick bastard! To imagine that a parent would allow this is proof that humans desperately need to shed themselves of the magic god crap.

I don’t get it. Is it like a wine press? Stamp on the babies to get the juices out. That’s terrible and such a waste. Better to bake them in an oven and eat them whole.

Oh come on, you were all thinking it too.
.-= hoverFrog´s last blog ..Death List 2010 =-.

the sad part is that there are people who believe this is right and will quickly hand over their babies for this.

again, my issue is not with the quacks, but the people who believe them wholeheartedly.

Does anyone know how many babies have died or got seriously hurt by this ritual?

Actually Orthodox Christians and Eastern Rite Catholics practice full immersion for infant baptism. Catholics and most protestants who practice infant baptism use a sprinkle (or commonly three) or small flow (again usually three) probably less than what the child would get from her parent when her head is washed. Following that is a dab of oil on the forehead.

It’s clear that the parents who allowed this failed their parenting license exam and have reproduced illegally. Oh wait, we don’t need any qualifications to parent. A license is only required for important things like driving or owning a gun or selling real estate. Not that I’m in favour of trying to curb the right of anyone to reproduce but it sure wouldn’t hurt to add some parenting classes alongside the math and biology. Lesson one: Do not allow a religious nutcase to walk on your baby.

How is it fair to point out this example of a wacked-out crazy person, and use this example against all believers?

Is it any less fair for a religious person to point out an insane, hateful atheist, and use that example against all atheists?

Is this really that different from letting a Mohel perform a bris? Or letting a priest dunk a baby into a vat of water to perform a baptism?

YES, Hemant. The answer is yes! I am one of millions of men in the U.S. whom have been circumcised and it was wholly the decision of my mother (i.e. not a religious decision). I have also witnessed the baptism of several babies, also not a disturbing phenomenon. However, standing on babies is most certainly harmful. I am not defending religion. I am only pointing out your comparison of apples to oranges.

Priests don’t dunk babies’ heads underwater. Usually, like Jonathon said, they just pour water on their forehead, but otherwise they just dip the kid’s back in the water. It’s a silly ritual, but it’s not like the kid would drown (unless, of course, they drop the baby in the water).

Also, what the hell is this CommentLuv thing? I clicked the link for it and still have no idea what it does.

@Sue D. Nymme

How is it fair to point out this example of a wacked-out crazy person, and use this example against all believers?

Is it any less fair for a religious person to point out an insane, hateful atheist, and use that example against all atheists?

The issue isn’t that there are evil people who are believers and evil people who are atheists; the issue is that the nature of religious belief necessarily produces such people.

Faith in rituals, holy men, and a god can kill. Faith is not a virtue. But all believers — “moderates”, “liberals”, “extremists” and “conservatives” alike — make faith a virtue.

Yeah, the hyperbole sometimes gets deep (no pun intended). I remember blowing in my kids face and intentionally making him go underwater.

I don’t think I did any permanent damage – oh wait – nah, he’s a good kid.

Yeah, so, that image really disturbed me – and I think you guys realize that it takes a LOT to disturb me.

That is very disturbing. I would have appreciated a warning before the image. That sort of thing can be a trigger for moms with postpartum depression. I wish I hadn’t seen that.

There is a tiny little up side to the video itself. If you look at the news anchor you can see that she has no qualms about questioning the sanity of this practice. She also gives ample airtime to the president of the Indian Rationalists Association and treats him with respect when he says that religious justification is no justification at all. Frankly there’s plenty of media in the US who would be more aggressive to a rationalist than this woman.

There are two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity… and I’m not sure about the universe.
- (Possibly) Albert Einstein

I can’t even look at that still pic but hurriedly scrolled past. That just got to the mother and grandmother in me. My whole body cringed.

I was feeling like a wuss until I saw Lugantic’s post. If this can get to her it ain’t just me. (Of course, she’s a Mom too.)

I’ve got to agree that you can’t really compare dunking and even bris to this. Especially the dunking. Babies are natural swimmers. This video says this group has been teaching them to swim for 15 years but these kinds of lessons have been going on longer than that. I took my daughter for lessons at our local Y at about 10 months and she just turned 27.

Claudia,

This doesn’t count since it’s someone defending the saving a baby. As long as it’s “someone think of the children!” it’s considered ok, whoever they may be.

Well different religious affiliations in the world has their own concept and faith of baptism. But for as long as we have common faith in Jesus then that is the only thing that matters. uslme step 1