Comment on Religions have some of the wackiest rules

• fireweed@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I can’t tell if you’re being humorous here, but historically babies were baptized shortly after birth out of fear that anyone who died without being baptized would be unable to get into heaven.

  In the middle ages* in Europe, baptism was usually scheduled a few days after birth, and often the historical record includes baptism dates and death dates for individuals, so historians estimate birth dates to be a few days prior to the baptism date. Babies that died pre-baptism were thought to go to purgatory instead of heaven, and considering the high infant mortality rate pre-modern medicine, there was a bit of a rush to get your offspring baptized pronto to save their itty bitty souls. Generally this is no longer believed, at least not by most mainstream Protestant sects, and many Christians nowadays opt to wait until their children are old enough to “appreciate” the event more.

  *Not sure exactly when, and maybe this was mostly a Catholic thing? Again, this is not my area of expertise.

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  • andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Catholics still do infant baptism, as do several Protestant groups.

    I think adult baptism popped up in a few heresies/other groups - like maybe the Cathars did it and iirc a few early heresies - but really became a thing post Protestant reformation with groups like the Anabaptists. (Like, Baptists are called such because they specifically reject infant baptism.)

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