> > The Other "I think this can help simplify it: I'm incredibly ignorant when it comes to my religion. *I* think that's particularly bad when you're a Catholic. But then, I'm the one sitting here saying I know nothing about this stuff." Matthew
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> I didn't realize you were Catholic when I responded to your response to Ria's post. I'm probably at least as ignorant as you on all things Catholic, but I am pretty certain that the Catholic take on baptism is significantly different from the fundamental Baptist doctrine.
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> The main problem I see with the Roman Catholic church is that they put waaay too much emphasis on ceremony and working one's way to heaven. The Church tells you that you have to do all the sacraments if you want to go to heaven, right? But if you don't get them all in, or maybe even if you don't do any of them, that's okay, you won't go to Hell unless you're really bad; you'll just have to sit in Purgatory until your relatives make penance for you.

I'm about 80% sure that's inaccurate, because marriage is one of the sacraments and so is ordination as a priest, so you're never going to rack up a perfect score. Unless you try one first, don't like it, and go try the other, which is not exactly warmly recommended either.

Having a thin veneer of Roman Catholicism myself, I was surprised to read this thread in which so many people described baptism during their teens or adulthood. By default, I think of baptism as something that happens shortly after you are born. Since nobody breeds quite like Roman Catholics do, I saw about a billion baptisms during my early years. To me, it always seemed to be a naming ceremony more than anything else -- that's certainly what I thought it was for many years. Later, when I had learned a bit more at Sunday School (beyond the really important stuff, like what happens to you if you bite a nun) I started thinking of it as a naming ceremony combined with marking the baby as a new member of the Catholic Church.

First communion, as a small child, is sort of the next step, after you've learned the basics of what you're supposed to believe in. Confirmation seems to be the Roman Catholic equivalent of the baptism others have described here; it is when you consciously, as an adult, make the decision to become a spiritual member of the church. I was confirmed when I was about 17, I think -- it was supposed to be a year earlier, but I already knew by then that I didn't believe in God the way I had been taught to. I had a lot of difficulty with this, because I felt (and still feel) very strongly that it is utterly wrong to make promises -- to God, on top of everything else -- which you have neither the intention nor the ability to keep.

I tried to say this at the time, and explain why I didn't want to be confirmed. I was allowed to put it off for a year. However, my mother insisted the following year, and because I was still a kid, I did it to keep her happy. I still think this was wrong of her, and more especially wrong of me. My thoughts on exactly what I believe in are still not conclusive, but I'm telling this story because based on this experience, it's pretty hard for me to assume that it's OK for a six year old to make the same commitment.

However, I know that many people -- perhaps this is the only way you can define the truly religious, anyway -- find God as if they've been hit by a thunderbolt, and their experience is naturally going to be completely different from mine. Since most of the other people who replied seem to have that sort of certainty, that's between them and God, and I'm certainly not going to try and convince them they're wrong. Oh, and congratulations, Sosiqui.