Off the Record

unum baptisma By Diogenes | March 30, 2009 6:15 AM

Here's a new twist: atheists resurrecting an Anabaptist sacramental theology in order to apostasize.

More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.
 

The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably no God."

"We now produce a certificate on parchment and we have sold 1,500 units at three pounds (4.35 dollars, 3.20 euros) a pop," said NSS president Terry Sanderson, 58.

Sorry, Terry. A man may leave the Church and abandon his Faith, but no one can un-baptise himself. Should any of these apostates have second thoughts later on and decide to return to the fold, he can't be baptised a second time and indeed won't need to be. Those certificates aren't worth the parchment they're written on.

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Sound Off! Comments

• Posted by: adamah - Mar. 30, 2009 8:54 PM ET USA

  It used to be that one would get something in return for selling one's soul. Now one must pay 3.20 euros in order to sell one's soul. Further proof that the economy has turned sour.

• Posted by: Gil125 - Mar. 30, 2009 5:56 PM ET USA

  Wrong. Di. Of COURSE they're worth something. They're worth 3.20 Euros each. That's the fair market value, defined as the price at which an asset passes from a willing buyer to a willing seller. (Leaving aside, arguendo, whether they can reasonably regarded as assets.)

• Posted by: Sir William - Mar. 30, 2009 12:10 PM ET USA

  Great fund raiser, right up there with, oh, I dunno - selling indulgences...