Kevin's Watch

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:01 am**

If I was baptised, but no longer believe in God, would I be classed as an atheist, or is there some kind of grey-area? That is the case for me, and I've been wondering for a while.

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:11 am**

If you don't believe in God, you're an Atheist. If you think there might be a god of some kind out there, you're Agnostic. If you think you're an Atheist, but think that your Baptism has some mitigating effect on Atheism, you're in denial.

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:11 am**

Classified by who? The only definition of yourself that counts is your own really.

It may be that some churches would "officially" still consider you a Christian, but you get to decide for yourself whether you are or not as far as I know, and am concerned.

--A

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:22 pm**

I'd hold off on that baptism thing. It's like a get out of jail free card, and once you use it, that's usually it.

I've read that the Catholics are removing limbo from the dogma, but Mormons, at least, still believe in it. It's where all the unbaptized go. And considering Mormons will baptize you post-mortem, in absentia, so to speak... well, if you're wrong, you can still get in.

I was baptized when I was ten, so it's too late for me.

Assuming you do it, though, just make sure the pastor puts down the microphone first.

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:27 pm**

Yeah, I think that Spring is saying he's already baptised. Ten? Don't know if it's a denominational thing, (Catholic) or a "national" one, but I was baptised a few months after birth, and that's pretty common here.

--A

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:17 pm**

Spring, you're fine. your early baptism doesn't cancel out your beliefs AND being only 14, you've got a pretty good amount of time yet to decide what those are, buddy. you're fine.

(i really liked Plissken's reply!!

)

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:01 pm**

I was baptised as Roman Catholic a few months after birth because if I hadn't been, my mother's family would probably have disowned her - how can you be Polish, after all, and not be Roman Catholic? I'm an apathetic agnostic bordering on atheist, though, and it certainly makes no difference to me that I was baptised. It is how you think and what you believe, not what was done to you in the name of religion/tradition, that makes you who you are. Even if your baptism was voluntary, you always have the right to change your mind.

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:51 pm**

hadn't heard that limbo was vanishing. though it seems a contradiction in terms?

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:25 pm**

if its in the process of vanishing you could say that limbo is in limbo.

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:58 am**

the how shall we find it?

spring: lapsed is the Catholic term for what you are going through.

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:53 am**

www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_ ... 02,00.html

Catholic Limbo ruling in limbo
From correspondents in Vatican City
30nov05

THE days of Limbo, the place the Catholic Church says unbaptised babies go, may be numbered.

According to Italian media reports today, an international theological commission will advise Pope Benedict to eliminate the teaching about limbo from Catholic catechism.

The Catholic Church teaches that babies who die before they can be baptised go to limbo, whose name comes from the Latin for "border" or "edge", because they deserve neither heaven nor hell.
...

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:00 am**

So then, what... Does the international theological commission think it is able to cause the destruction of limbo? Or are they telling the pope that the Catholic Church's teachings have been wrong all along?

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:33 am**

Certainly wouldn't be the first time - but where will the Dispensation Money come from, without Limbo?

(Purgatory's in Limbo, right? I thought that's how it worked...)

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:26 am**

limbo
www.newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm

purgatory
www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:02 am**

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:It is how you think and what you believe, not what was done to you in the name of religion/tradition, that makes you who you are.

Exactly.

--A

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:19 pm**

The Bible teaches that baptism is an outward expression of an inner belief. So, many people are baptised as children, which really doesn't make much sense. It doesn't mean anything to the kid.

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:34 pm**

Fist and Faith wrote:So then, what... Does the international theological commission think it is able to cause the destruction of limbo? Or are they telling the pope that the Catholic Church's teachings have been wrong all along?

Well, if you want the religious explanation... strictly speaking the Gospels claim that Jesus told Peter, upon granting him mandate to found the Church, "whatever you will bind on Earth, shall be bound in Heaven". This mandate was to be passed on to all of Peter's successors. So, since the Pope is Peter's successor, if he were to decide that limbo does not exist, and publicly, officially say so, then according to the mandate as given in the Gospels limbo actually would not only cease to exist, it would never have existed at all.

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:18 pm**

So the people that bought indulgences, when the practice was later repealed, ended up getting kicked out of heaven? Or, wait, the fabric of reality would've changed so that they actually would've never been there. Man, that would suck. Hmm, so the priests that sold the indulgences would've been guilty of theft, then. It must be a pain in the neck for God every time a new pope changes something.

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:47 pm**

TRUE MEANING OF INFALLIBILITY
www.newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:08 pm**

Syl wrote:It must be a pain in the neck for God every time a new pope changes something.

Kevin's Watch

Quick Religion Question

Quick Religion Question