Infant Baptism - C of E - what next for the agnostic?

[Nettee]

I have just had ds (6 months old) baptised but am questioning whether this was right when i don't accept all the doctrine of the church. I want him to know about christianity as part of our culture and to learn good values but I also want him to explore his own beliefs and spirituality. Do you think it is best for young children to learn about the bible as absolute truth first or is a debate about how true or not it might be healthy from an early age?

There is a quote from the bible along the lines of - you must be like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven. Maybe pure absolute belief as a child is a normal stage and they aren't ready for debate until they start questioning it.

Why tell your child something is an absolute truth if you don't believe it yourself? The Bible is a man made bit of writing so why should it be natural for a child to think it is absolutely true? I tell ds that some people believe in Gods, but they don't really exist and are just in stories, like dragons. You will probably choose to say something different to your child.

You can be a baptised Christian without taking the Bible as a literal document.

Was the baptism in the Church of England, Nettee? We attend church most Sundays and ds goes to Sunday School. The talk there is much more along the lines of what you hope for - general discussions of morals and ethics from a Christian perspective (at an appropriate level for 3-10s, of course!), illustrated with stories from Jesus' life and examples of good Christian witness around the world today. Our church supports a school (open to ALL in its community) in Peru - in an area of the country where most children otherwise go uneducated.

I don't think many British Christians would want Bible absolutism for their children and I hope and expect ds will make up his own mind about whether to follow any faith or none as he gets older.

did you raise your concerns with the priest who conducted the service? IMO many are very understanding on these issues. They know that people who are not committed Christians opt for baptism for all sorts of good motives, and should be ready to help and support doubting parents.

Durr! Sorry, I see from your thread title it was the C of E.

Thank you Marina - That is helpful. I don't want to be a hypocrite and the baptism service wasn't too specific - no creed or anything. It was quite moving for ds to have prayers said for him and everything. Not brave enough to tell the vicar about my doubting - although he knew neither myself nor dh were confirmed

aloha - certainly don't want to lie to ds but might be confusing for him to understand my woolly belief system. At least in the church there is a base to start from.

What I really don't want is for ds to worry about sin and hell - but I would hope that a c of e sunday school wouldn't get carried away with any of that.