"Believers baptism is more meaningful

than infant baptism", Evaluate this

Statement.
I think that believers’ baptism is more meaningful than infant baptism, because only those who are
old enough to know what they are really doing and fully commit to it, should be baptised. This
means they should be a teenager or an adult as it would mean much more to them. In the bible, it
mentions baptism several times such as in John 3:5, it says that “No one can enter the kingdom of
God unless they are born of water and the Spirit,” and since Jesus himself was baptised as an adult
lots of people believe that believers’ baptism is the way that baptism is meant to be. On top of that,
some denominations of Christians think that people should only be baptised if they truly believe that
their sins are taken away by Christ, but this would be incomprehensible to a mere child who hasn’t
learned about repentance or the amendment of life. These arguments are strong and logical because
a baby will not be able to understand the idea of cleansing sin and so it seems useless and more like
a meaningless practice that just names the child.

However, certain denominations of Christianity like Catholics may believe that infant baptism is
more meaningful because it is natural for the parents to want to bring up their child as a practising
Christian right from the start. During the ceremony of an infant baptism, The Apostles’ Creed is used,
and the child is submitted to Christ, and the parents confirm the acceptance of the Church’s faith,
which is said in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in…the holy catholic church”. Also, in Infant Baptism,
the child receives the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are as essential to spiritual growth as food
is to physical growth. These qualities are things such as wisdom and patience. Furthermore, having
an infant baptism enables the child to receive the other sacraments for example confirmation and
eucharist. These are relatively convincing arguments because someone who has a believers’ baptism
is not able to receive other sacraments which are prominent in the Catholic Church.

Nevertheless, I still believe that believers’ baptism is more important and meaningful because babies
have no choice in infant baptism, and they may regret it one day as it is irreversible. Richard Dawkins
said boldly that “to raise a child in a religious faith, is the same as child abuse,” although I would not
go as far to it is child abuse, I do partially agree that it is wrong to raise a child into a faith without
their choice. Additionally, in the believers’ baptism service, they emphasise the bringing the person
back out of the water as it symbolises the start of his or her new life as part of the Christian
community. This argument is good because it does give the manner of baptism more significance
and meaning for the recipient.

In conclusion, I continue to believe that believers’ baptism is more meaningful than infant baptism,
for the main reason that infant baptism is solely the parents choice and it doesn’t seem for on the
child, but also since believers’ baptism is almost identical to how Jesus himself was baptised.