Matt Gemmell posted a tweet stating: Friend is having child baptised. Sad that kid is starting life by having his right to freely choose his own beliefs violated by his parents. Ole Begemann joined the conversation with Baptising “brands” a child for years. You’re deemed “a Catholic” or “a Protestant” even though too young to choose.

My question is simple: if baptising a child “violates their right to choose their own beliefs”, and “brands them for years,” cannot the same be said for raising children to believe that there are no gods, and that there is only the natural world? Aren’t atheists effectively doing the same thing?

Now I know that the argument will be made that atheists are simply teaching reason¹ and science, and allowing their children to discover their own beliefs. I challenge this assumption, simply because whatever we teach our children will shape the way that they look at and understand the world. Can, as Matt and Ole argue, baptising a child limit their choice of belief in future? Maybe. Can not baptising a child and teaching them only to listen to science and reason limit their choice in belief too?