U.S. Atheists Reportedly Using Hair Dryers to 'De-Baptize'

reply to post by EnkiCarbone

Wrong to make a joke of it? It's a symbolic ritual, just like Baptism itself. Therefore it's no more a joke than Baptism itself. How many babies are actually able to baptize themselves of their own accord, vs. being able to do the latter? See, it's less of a joke when a conscious, thinking adult makes the decision. More and more people are deciding they don't want the shackles of ignorance, superstition, and stupidity on them. Who can blame them? Babies don't have that choice, do they? Someone makes it for them.

You're right, the world isn't fair. Funny how the people that seem to know this best seem to be the ones using logic, reasoning, and sanity, instead of being led into a flock of ignorance and lies.

Re: I'm not an atheist either

Of course they were doing it as a joke. They are Atheist and shouldn't care whether they were baptized or not, nor should they care about rituals and what not. If you don't believe in god, then whether or not you were baptized as baby, shouldn't matter.

As far as baptizing children, parents should have every right to do so, just as they should have every right to pick the clothes, neighborhood, schooling (to a degree), and activities. You see, children can not yet have liberty, until they are mature enough to hold the responsibilities that go along with those liberties. Parents pick whether whether or not their children are baptised and if the children choose to change their religion when they get older, then they are more than free to do so.

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon


Ok these people need some help , please a blow dryer to get debaptized ?

They sound like good old fashion media hogs to me , not as they are claiming , an atheist .

At many of you, in mass:

Atheism is not a religion. It does not involve worship of a higher power or deity, it does not establish community beliefs or ethics, and it does not explain or assign meaning to the universe. It mearly rejects the claim that deities exist. Please read the definitions of the words.

en.m.wikipedia.org...
en.m.wikipedia.org...

While it may be insulting to others beliefs, it most certainly is not nonsense to perform such a symbolic ritual as using the hair dryer to dry up the holy water.

As a man leaning into atheism i am finding it very difficult to rid myself of the compulsion to blame, thank, ask, or ponder with the god of my teachings. logical and with reason i deny the fable that has no other support than someone said so. that person in turn was also told but has no experience with this god. if asked questions that do not have ready answers we say faith. To believe with out substantial fact for the sake of good or the fear of vengeance from that god.

We have been controlled from birth with fear and religion is a huge part of that. It remains in us no matter how hard we fight to free ourselves of this mental illness. if you have seen the movie (A beautiful mind) you see crow understanding his illness but unable to rid himself of the delusion. He functions but the illness remains.

So, one symbolic action to help rid the effects of another. it is fully a selfish thing to bring peace of mind. if you are offended by it, i am likewise offended to be infected with your mental illness against my will.

Thankyou

Atheists can have wacky & harmless habits, just like religious people. So what??!! That doesn't turn it into a form of religious faith all on its own.

As usual Fox news will distort reality.

And are the majority of atheists carrying out hairdrying actions repeatedly and sacredly? No, of course not.

I imagine all kinds of strange things being true that were beyond all our wildest imaginations only a short time ago. Life inside stars, hypernovae the birth of parallel universes, black holes as portals to parallel universes, collective consciousness as another force in nature.

Truth is, we've discovered that reality is always stranger and wierder than fiction stories and old folk tales. Should we really expect thousand year old bible tales to be the most fantastic and accurate account of any larger or higher truth???


[edit on 18-7-2010 by john124]

Not an atheist myself but, actually the idea of the hair dryer i found kind of clever and funny. Anyway, look the people going to do this are atheists already, it's not like they are pushing their beliefs on anyone, seems to me it's just some wacky way for them to express their own feelings. Seems pretty harmless to me. It's like, their little way of rejecting mainstream religion, then i can certainly respect that, in the sense that "mainstream" religions are full of hot air.

reply to post by airspoon


Children should not be indoctrenated into a belief system. They are too young to question or understand the beliefs, and by the time they are old enough to question nthey have been so immersed in the beliefs that it is very difficult for them to step back and consider what they believe, not what they have been taught to believe. I will answer any questions my children have and let them choose in their own time. They are not acessories to my religious views (or lack thereof); they are human beings.

reply to post by RomeoDandy


reply to post by RomeoDandy


Oh, I find all sorts of belief systems to be based upon the incorrect assertion (as I see it) that a deity(ies) exist, and anyone from those religious traditions that attempts to push their faith into public policy or onto me I will confront about their infringment jupon my freedom of/from religion. It just so happens that the majority of those I have to deal with are christian.

And I won't mock you for your religion even though I disagree. You are free to believe whatever you want, just as I am. And I enjoy being nice to people, esp friends/patients/what have you who are ill/feeling down and need chearing up. I reject the god hypothesis, not my humanity.

Don't by it , media hogs .

Anyone doing this is doing it for others not them selves , the show , unless they are very insecure people but that ties right back into the doing it for others bit .

Anyone with a media voice , an agenda and some bleeding hearts , look out YOU are about to lose some rights .

Grow up people and stop caring less about what others believe , if one has to be against something to be for something then they are being controlled and just aren't smart enough to see it.

As for fear and religion being used to control , I say NO KIDING SILLY , name one thing of importance that has not been used to opress others ???

People with power use anything to control others , its the way it is .

There are just as many, IF NOT MORE, Christians who are incredibly disrespectful and intolerant of anyone who disagrees with or challenges their faith. The problem is people are too sensitive. Sure you may see this as being disrespectful, SO WHAT? Does it hurt anyone? No. Does it break any laws? No. Is the world going to change one bit because a group of people decide to debaptize themselves? NO. So just ignore it and move on. Be strong in your beliefs and don't worry so much about what other people say. Sticks and stones! And so what if it is a publicity stunt? You mean to tell me that Christians don't like to push their agenda's in an openly public way? I would have to laugh if you said no to that one. Any religion, group, organization, uses the media to publicize their message. Christians are no different.

reply to post by guillotinegleam


My friend , my comments sure do apply to Christians , or anyone else for that matter.

They can claim to be whatever they want but what they are is a group being controlled by others to push some agenda , which will in all likelihood , take away some right granted by the constitution .

Do I see it as disrespectful to me ? Not a chance , I see it as plain silly .

reply to post by airspoon



See, this is where I believe you don't know very much about religion and non-religious people. Ritual isn't as black and white as that.

Ritual in this sense is for the purposes of elevating the psyche to the understanding that those baptismal shackles are broken. You see? Ritual can be just about anything, it doesn't necessarily mean it has to have a religious overtone. Even symbolic rituals aren't "religious" per-se if they're not done so by design.

Get up every morning and brush your teeth? Guess what - that's a ritual.
Have a certain method of filing your paperwork at work? That's a ritual too.

Maybe these aren't illuminating methods, but they exist as a format for the brain. Form follows function - trained and understood in the mind. In the regards of Rituals that are designed to change someone's thought processes - they are key to illumination. They are imperative to enlightenment, because of the impact they have on the psyche. It's that symbolic value that rituals have to the individual that make them important. There's no religious connotation involved with it if it's not part of the process, it's a deep intimate bond of the body and mind - making the connection (and in the case of de-baptism) I no longer need this, I'm free of this.

I hope this was a bit more informative than my last reply.

reply to post by airspoon


Ok i'm an atheist and i find this silly. I understand why they are doing it, it's nothing serious just laughing at other peoples religious beliefs but i find such laughter to be childish.

This entire act is childish and beneath those who value reason.


Religion is stupid and this act is no less stupid.

Originally posted by RomeoDandy
Of course they mean to offend but since I find atheism to be a form of mental illness, I could care less.
I am curious though, I don't seem to ever see the atheist blowhards attacking Islam, VooDoo, Hinduism, etc. specifically, am I wrong?
They attack "religion" and then narrow down to christianity, but any other religion?
A few years back I had an operation in a Catholic hospital, a nun brought me some ice cream while I was recuperating. I spose if an atheist were there, he or she would have mocked me for awhile then scratched their butt.

LOL. Just because someone doesn't believe in a God or religion that has no actual proof of it's validity, that doesn't make them mentally ill, nor does it make them rude or insensitive. I am personally an agnostic, however I feel that Christians are more so openly intolerant than other religions. I'm not saying that other religions aren't, but in America it seems that you don't see Mormons protesting funerals or Jews demanding a star of david outside of a courthouse.

I'm sorry but this is pathetic!!!

Originally posted by Max_TO
reply to post by guillotinegleam

 

My friend , my comments sure do apply to Christians , or anyone else for that matter.

They can claim to be whatever they want but what they are is a group being controlled by others to push some agenda , which will in all likelihood , take away some right granted by the constitution .

Do I see it as disrespectful to me ? Not a chance , I see it as plain silly .

:-) I will say that I do agree with you, it was a slightly silly thing to do. You'd figure the news would have something more important to report on... Yeeah right lol.

Sorry. I don't often do this. I don't want to read this thread. I just want to say this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

I am a deist. i think baptism is stupid, too. But this goes about 1 million miles further.

They should stand in the pool while doing it. Thin the herd using simple Darwinism.

All I have to say about this is...

HAIL SATAN!

John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire-Luke3.16

I'm going to start chasing people outside churches with an anti-baptismal blow dryer.

If you don't like it, RUN!