Fox News reported that a group of atheists all got together to get themselves “debaptized” and they did this by using a hair dryer and muttering some phrases in Latin that they likely ripped off some episode of “Supernatural” or “Buffy.”
This is sad. America simply has to get better quality atheist. Our atheists are carnival barkers. This is an insult to adolescent rebellion. Look, England’s atheists aren’t all that great but at least they write bestselling books. Our atheists use hair dryers on Nightline.
Come on American atheists you’re being embarrassed.
Leading atheist Edwin Kagin blasted his fellow non-believers with the hair dryer to symbolically dry up the holy water sprinkled on their heads in days past. The styling tool was emblazoned with a label reading “Reason and Truth.”
Kagin believes parents are wrong to baptize their children before they are able to make their own choices, even slamming some religious education as “child abuse.” He said the blast of hot air was a way for adults to undo what their parents had done.
“I was baptized Catholic. I don’t remember any of it at all,” said 24-year-old Cambridge Boxterman. “According to my mother, I screamed like a banshee … so you can see that even as a young child I didn’t want to be baptized. It’s not fair. I was born atheist, and they were forcing me to become Catholic.”
Kagin donned a monk’s robe and said a few mock-Latin phrases before inviting those wishing to be de-baptized to “come forward now and receive the spirit of hot air that taketh away the stigma and taketh away the remnants of the stain of baptismal water.”
Ironically, Kagin’s own son became a fundamentalist Christian minister after having “a personal revelation in Jesus Christ.”
“One wonders where they went wrong,” he chuckled to the TV show.
Oh give me a break. Kagin’s own son became a Christian!? That has to hurt.
The funniest part is that they’re still baptized. And they know it. Now they’ll say they don’t care but then I have to ask why go through the silly hair dryer ceremony if the baptism isn’t a big deal?
July 20, 2010 at 10:39 am
I think it all makes sense. You can actually cook nuts with enough hot air from those dryers.
July 20, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Are these people idiots. By the fact that they feel they need to debaptize themselves, they're implicitly admitting that the baptism they received was valid. But if it was valid, then according to the Church who baptized them it can't be undone. So what are these so-called brights doing playing around with robes and hair dryers?
July 20, 2010 at 2:15 pm
How lame.
"…muttering some phrases in Latin that they likely ripped off some episode of "Supernatural" or "Buffy."
Matthew: reading that, reminder me of the "latin" in the movie, "Johnny Dangerously".
"…Probius, omnibus, I missed the bus. When's the next bus? Prime meridian, ante meridian, all the little meridians…"
Anyway, I heard that the organizers of this ceremony were hoping to attract a whole lot more atheists to join them, but they were told, "Sorry, we just don't believe in it." Yuk.
July 20, 2010 at 2:49 pm
They certainly seem to be filled with "the spirit of hot air." What a bunch of blow hards.
July 20, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Isn't the wind also symbolic of the Holy Spirit? Let's pray they got a double dose of Reason and Truth and convert back to the Church!
July 20, 2010 at 5:08 pm
It reads like bad satire!
July 20, 2010 at 7:47 pm
"Ironically, Kagin's own son became a fundamentalist Christian minister after having "a personal revelation in Jesus Christ."
"
pwned 😛
July 21, 2010 at 8:51 am
First of all, I have to apologize for my English — but I trust you'll get my message anyway. If you like it — well, that's another thing, I guess …
This de-baptizing-hair-dyer-stuff is quite ridiculous a ceremony, no doubt! On the other hand — ins't it equally ridiculous to believe that pouring some spoonful of "holy" water over the head of a baby is going to "save" this baby from "sin"? Come on! Try to explain to me the "sins" of a nurseling infant (apart from that odd Augustinian idea of an "original sin"), and you will immediately realize that this is in fact as ridiculous as a hair-dyer ceremony! "Saving" somebody "from damnation" by pouring some water and mumbling some ritual words is just too naive an idea …
Indubitably, America deserves better Atheists! But it need better (in the sense of: less superstitious) Christians as well!
July 21, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Ismael – I'm a Catholic Christian. Ultimately, though, it really isn't about my religion. It's about Jesus Christ. He is God and he is man and a perfect example of a man for us to emulate. He allowed himself to be baptized, he commanded his disciples to baptize. He also honored Mary, gave us his body and blood… argue with him about it.
July 21, 2010 at 7:23 pm
LePenseur – I'm a Catholic Christian. Ultimately, though, it really isn't about my religion. It's about Jesus Christ. He is God and he is man and a perfect example of a man for us to emulate. He allowed himself to be baptized, he commanded his disciples to baptize. He also honored Mary, gave us his body and blood… argue with him about it.
July 22, 2010 at 4:57 am
If they really are atheists, then the fact that they were baptized shouldn't even matter to them, right? Because they should think that it is meaningless, right? What a contradiction their actions make. Thanks for sharing!
July 22, 2010 at 8:59 am
@Tori:
If they really are atheists, then the fact that they were baptized shouldn't even matter to them, right? Because they should think that it is meaningless, right?
I think, the baptism doesn't matter them seriously — the just wanted to show in a jocular way that they disapprove of baptisms without consent of the baptized (which applies in all cases of infant baptism).
Furthermore, I guess, they wanted to ridicule the (IMHO somewhat naive) belief that by conducting a baptismal ceremony anything is "changing" spiritually (cf. "character indelebilis" in the teaching of the RCC). So I think it is quite funny (though a bit infantile) an idea to "dry off the stains of baptims" with a hair-dyer. But, as I pointed out above, not much more infantile than the belief that by pouring water and uttering a formula any baby can be "saved" from eternal damnation …
@Ismael:
Ironically, Kagin's own son became a fundamentalist Christian minister after having "a personal revelation in Jesus Christ."
Well, Kagin himself was born in a striktly religious presbyterian family, his father was minister (as quite a part of Kagin's ancestry as well). Thus the irony starts one step erlier …
@Anonymus:
I'm a Catholic Christian.
Me too (as most Austrians are).
He also honored Mary, gave us his body and blood… argue with him about it.
Although I have no idea what Jesus' honouring of Mary could have to do with baptism … be assured that I have no intention to argue with him about it.