Christians on PH?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

qube_TA said:

I was asked to be a God Parent, but as I'm atheist I declined, to accept was a bit hypocritical and would miss understand the function of the role. I'm happy to 'be there for the children in question if ever required but I didn't want a title that didn't make sense.

Same here, I like to think of myself as the "logic and reason" parent to my friend's daughter. If anything happens to them, I'll be there to tell her that they aren't in heaven! But they live on thru her DNA.

[HTP99]

smn159 said:

I don't understand parents who aren't religious who want their children christened. I attended one recently and thought that it was appalling.

Both my sisters kids are Christened, both my sister and her husband aren't religious "it's what you do isn't it".

Both my sister and I were brought up in a C of E family, regularly attending church and I helped out with the Sunday bits and bobs at the church from a very young age, my dad was strongly religious and was very committed to the church but in no way would he force it onto anyone and you wouldn't think that he was religious, I was Christened and Confirmed, my sister was Christened but is not Confirmed, however pretty much almost straight after my Confirmation, I said I didn't want any more to do with it. My dad was disappointed but to give him his due, he accepted my decision.

Both of my kids are not Christened, both myself and my wife are not religious at all, she was brought up as a Catholic though.

[CloaK]

DrSteveBrule said:

I've just finished reading it; I think it's referencing the creationist argument that says the chances of life 'happening' are akin to a whirlwind blowing through a junkyard and collecting together all the required pieces to form a funcational plane.

Creationist seem intent on claiming the chances of life are too great to have any other explaination other than a devine creator (never mind the question 'Who created the creator?')

Dawkins goes to great lengths to say that life doesn't rely on chance. Evolution slowly develops; nothing was instantly created. Furthermore it hasn't stopped. The humans of the future will look different to how we look today.

Creationists often claim the human eye is so complex it has to be designed. Well, no. It's far from perfect. Birds of prey have far better sight than we do. We see images upside down and the focal point is at the back of our eye, through which light has to travel through lenses and goo and rods before hitting the receptors. Our range of vision is limited in numerous ways and through the eyeball being mishapen slightly our vision can be impaired.

Thanks for that, I thought that was what he meant but it just seemed too simple an argument to be the primary focus of the book,

[Nimby]

DrSteveBrule said:

I've just finished reading it; I think it's referencing the creationist argument that says the chances of life 'happening' are akin to a whirlwind blowing through a junkyard and collecting together all the required pieces to form a funcational plane.

Creationist seem intent on claiming the chances of life are too great to have any other explaination other than a devine creator (never mind the question 'Who created the creator?')

Dawkins covers this in much more detail in his book "Climbing Mount Improbable".

[TwigtheWonderkid]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

It's just a way for non religious parents to have a bit of a party to welcome the new baby to the world. No more pointless than a 1st birthday party. Done for the parents, not the kid.

[anonymous-user]

qube_TA said:

NinjaPower said:

Steve H said:

I wouldn't expect you to take your godchild to church every week but I'm not sure about agreeing to take the role on then pissing all over it.

Both myself and the other Godparent are Atheist.

The boy's parents have known us both for a long time and know we are very much firmly Atheist. We (Both Godparents) and the parents had a discussion about it when we were asked to be a Godparent, where we made it clear that we weren't comfortable taking part in a religious ceremony and clearly lying to all present about looking after the child 'with Gods help'.

Essentially, the parents told us to stop being silly and to just grit our teeth and pretend to be religious for a few minutes, as it was 'just a few words'.

The parents made it clear they didn't expect us to change our views in any way, but they would like us to be there for the boy if anything happened to them, which I will certainly do if anything happened.

I was asked to be a God Parent, but as I'm atheist I declined, to accept was a bit hypocritical and would miss understand the function of the role. I'm happy to 'be there for the children in question if ever required but I didn't want a title that didn't make sense.

I chatted to a couple of people about it, and talked to the parents who had asked me, and it became quite clear that accepting the offer was the best option, as they would be quite offended if I had turned it down.

Being asked to be a godparent is quite an 'honour' in some ways, and to say no because you can't simply keep quiet in church for a few minutes is daft, and no doubt quite offensive to the parents who consider you to be the best person they can think of to be a godparent to their child.

They didn't expect me to carry out any religious duties whatsoever and simply wanted me to to be there for their son if he needed me.

There were some threads in here a couple of years ago about this very thing and the general consensus was that the best option was to politely accept their offer and just pretend you aren't an atheist for a few minutes of your life in church out of respect for your friends, the parents.

The next question from people will surely be: Why did the parents ask an Atheist to be a God parent? And the answer is that the parents are standard issue Church Of England. Which is that they do everything by the book: Church Wedding, Christening, Godparents, Confirmation, etc etc... But then proceed to never, ever, ever go to church or have anything to do with religion other than those milestone events. So the fact that the godparent is an atheist is not really high on their list of things to worry about.

Edited by NinjaPower on Monday 4th July 16:28

[TwigtheWonderkid]

NinjaPower said:

I chatted to a couple of people about it, and talked to the parents who had asked me, and it became quite clear that accepting the offer was the best option, as they would be quite offended if I had turned it down.

They don't seem like very good friends, that they would ask you to lie in front of a whole load of people and then be offended if you refused.

When I was asked by friends, they made it clear from the outset that they would never expect me to be part of the official Christening given my atheism but they wanted to say in a speech at the after party that I was their choice of official "non believing godparent."

[anonymous-user]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

NinjaPower said:

I chatted to a couple of people about it, and talked to the parents who had asked me, and it became quite clear that accepting the offer was the best option, as they would be quite offended if I had turned it down.

They don't seem like very good friends, that they would ask you to lie in front of a whole load of people and then be offended if you refused.

When I was asked by friends, they made it clear from the outset that they would never expect me to be part of the official Christening given my atheism but they wanted to say in a speech at the after party that I was their choice of official "non believing godparent."

Maybe I didn't put very well.

What I meant was that I was extremely touched/honoured that they had asked me, and having discussed the matter, it seemed best to accept the offer and simply put my own feelings and beliefs on hold for a brief time whilst the ceremony took place.

If I had refused point blank, and the other atheist God parent had also refused, then I feel they would have been a little upset and had to have chosen two other people that they perhaps didn't think were as suitable.

It was all about the child, not about me, and I didn't feel it was the time and the place to dig my heels in and make a fuss about my own non-beliefs.

Edited to add: the other godparent is an Atheist Jew, so I'm sure that will raise some interesting questions by the godson in future

Edited by NinjaPower on Monday 4th July 17:04

[Steve H]

I've been in the same position twice, once with my brother and once with a very good friend. In each case I had to refuse on the basis that I couldn't be so hypocritical It wasn't an easy call and for sure it would have been simpler to just suck it up and lie through my teeth but I couldn't do it and explained this to the parents in each case.

Maybe it's my upbringing that is in play here as I was christened despite having unreligious parents, it was done on the basis that it left my options open to decide for myself as I grew up. My godparents however were proper believers, church every Sunday etc, and I assume they were picked at least in part as they were so well qualified.

I guess everyone has their point of no return, I was best man at my brothers church wedding and I'll hum along with the tunes at a funeral but I couldn't persuade myself to say that stuff in the christening.

[br d]

qube_TA said:

I was asked to be a God Parent, but as I'm atheist I declined, to accept was a bit hypocritical and would miss understand the function of the role. I'm happy to 'be there for the children in question if ever required but I didn't want a title that didn't make sense.

And again. I was asked if I could just bluff through it and not really mean what I was saying but I couldn't bring myself to even pretend it made any sense.
The vicar at the event was very progressive and really seemed like a great bloke but the religious clap trap was incessant. It's staggering to me that adults can take it seriously.

[SpeckledJim]

So it is desperately important that Godparents be assigned and made to promise before the Lord and their friends and family that, come the crunch, they will raise the child in Christianity...

...but not in the slightest important that a single part of the above actually be the truth.

C of E in a nutshell. The ultimate cop-out religion.

[HTP99]

SpeckledJim said:

So it is desperately important that Godparents be assigned and made to promise before the Lord and their friends and family that, come the crunch, they will raise the child in Christianity...

...but not in the slightest important that a single part of the above actually be the truth.

C of E in a nutshell. The ultimate cop-out religion.

I think in a lot of cases, particularly with non religious parents, it is just an excuse to have a bit of "look at me" time and some nice photo's, it's the same as non religious people who get married in church; notice how they never get married in the local 60's build Methodist church, it is always the old village church that looks lovely in photos.

[bridgland]

Back to the topic. Got a bunch of Christian friends who love their cars. I am however not religious in any way and prefer to just be a "good bloke" with a bunch of friends who natter about lots of things including cars. We all generally believe that a good V8 is one of the nicest noises out there, as well as an Italian V twin bike engine.

Glad to have helped bring this one back to the original question.

[mybrainhurts]

bridgland said:

Back to the topic. Got a bunch of Christian friends who love their cars. I am however not religious in any way and prefer to just be a "good bloke" with a bunch of friends who natter about lots of things including cars. We all generally believe that a good V8 is one of the nicest noises out there, as well as an Italian V twin bike engine.

Glad to have helped bring this one back to the original question.

Praise be...a miracle...