Okay, so this topic is one that has been talked about endlessly at our house and at my PIL's place. We have also talked about it endlessly with friends who are quite Christian in their beliefs.

DH and I are raised Roman Catholic. I say 'raised' because we are not practicing RCs at present, due to a crisis of faith which has been going on for a while now. (DH was an altar boy for ages and I went to church every Sunday and did the readings etc until I left home). There are some aspects to the RC church that we don't agree with, however that's another conversation that could go on forever. Being Filipino, the RC church plays a large role in that society, and my parents are church-goers, as are most of my side of the family. My MIL is also disillusioned with the RC church. While we do not go to church every Sunday, we do celebrate Christmas, Easter etc for the celebrations that they are.

Now, I was always going to have DS baptised, however as DH pointed out, 'Why? You don't have to be baptised to be taught good/bad/tolerance/acceptance of other people and religions etc.' Apart from the fact that we don't go to church anymore, it seemed a pretty moot point to baptise DS 'just because we were'. My MIL is ok with this, however surprisingly my FIL is dead set on the fact that DS has to be baptised (in the RC church). This was surprising as my FIL is Anglican and is the least religious of everyone. I know my family would be very disappointed if DS was not baptised - I'm not willing to approach that subject with them yet as it will just end up in a huge argument.

DH has also been reading and looking at other religions, their belief systems etc as well as investigating atheisism (sp?) and agnosticism (sp?) and generally all sort of faith/belief systems. As a family we have been looking at other faiths and churches that might be more suitable (for lack of a better word) for us. Unfortunately, the one we found has recently been excommunicated from the RC church.

Anyway, I think I'm rambling here and not making much of a point ... as I said, this is a topic which has been talked about endlessly in our household. I think that the general opinion in our home is that DS will be raised to know the difference between good/bad/evil etc and to be aware of the different religions and belief systems that exist. We hope that if we do our job right, we will raise a son who is aware, tolerant, open-minded and understanding of the world around him and the people in that world.

I hope this has made some sense and isn't just some rambling rant! We are still confused by all this. What we do know is that we will not be telling DS that there is one religion/belief system that is 'better' than others (which is kind of what I was raised believing).