Man and Dog Discover Dead Rat in Ottawa’s Experimental Farm

OTTAWA, Aug. 19, 2024 — A man and his dog encountered a dead rat in the middle of the road in the Experimental Farm near the Ottawa Civic Hospital campus. The cause of death was unconfirmed but appeared to be acute trauma from a moving vehicle. Closer investigation was inhibited by excessive interest from the man’s dog. The corpse was left undisturbed while the man and his dog continued their walk. Upon returning to the scene several days later, the corpse had disappeared without a trace. For more information, please contact: GWRat Public Relations Officer Ottawa Rat Welfare Society

Vestiges of Baptism

This is a record of an old discussion I had in defending myself for being the only unbaptized atheist member of a church council. 

Baptism made sense when it visibly initiated one into a cohesive, embodied community of faith. In a fragmented modern context, it survives only through rationalizations (promise, symbolism, exclusionary magic), which strain against fairness, consciousness, and the primacy of understanding.

1. Faith vs. Promise

Faith-based view:
Baptism is a sign of an inward transformation, so it presumes awareness and belief. If it transforms a person, it requires understanding.

Promise-based view:
Baptism is God’s unilateral promise or covenant, not dependent on merit or awareness. This explains infant baptism — the community (parents, sponsors, congregation) trusts in God’s promise on the child’s behalf.

Tension: If transformation requires understanding, infant baptism feels hollow. If it doesn’t require understanding, then it risks trivializing consciousness and moral agency.

2. Community vs. Individual

Communal meaning: Baptism historically bound people to a church, tribe, or nation of faith. A shared ritual builds identity, belonging, and memory.

Modern erosion: Mobility and individualism weaken the communal role. Baptism into a local parish doesn’t “stick” the way it once did.

Individual meaning: That leaves baptism either as a personal spiritual act (requiring self-awareness) or an abstract rite (feeling exclusionary or “magical”).

3. Symbolism vs. Power

Symbolic washing: A sign of purification or rebirth, which needs interpretation to be meaningful.

Instrumental power (“ex opere operato” in Catholic theology): Baptism works as a key, conferring grace regardless of understanding. This makes it exclusionary (“in” vs. “out”).

Concern: If symbolic, it needs understanding (hard for infants). If magical, it undermines fairness and risks arbitrariness.

4. Origins and Vestiges

The Reformation stripped rituals down to what reformers considered essential: Word, Sacrament (baptism + communion), and forgiveness.

Baptism remained as a visible, bodily act to mark the boundary of the community.

Observation: If its purpose is primarily communal, then with weak communities it feels vestigial — a leftover marker in search of meaning.

5. Transformation and Memory

Ritual bonding: Baptism is more powerful when experienced communally (group baptisms, witnessing your children’s baptism).

Problem: Infant baptism doesn’t create memory for the baptized, only for the parents or community. This weakens its binding force.

6. Sin and Salvation

Classical view: Baptism washes away original sin, making salvation possible.

Critique: If animals and infants without awareness cannot sin, then the whole premise of “washing away sin” is incoherent. If salvation depends on baptism, God seems unjust and cruel.

Underlying clash: The doctrine of “faith alone” (grace, not merit) contradicts a fairness-based, awareness-based view of responsibility.

7. Catalyst Perspective

A more pragmatic angle: Baptism could be like training or study — an act that feels rote at first but later becomes meaningful as life unfolds.

Hesitation: If it works this way, then baptism still implies some kind of merit (growth through practice), undermining the idea that it is pure gift.

Synthesis

Baptism’s historical core: a communal initiation rite — marking belonging to a visible faith body.

Baptism’s modern problem: the weakening of that community leaves the rite hollow or forces rationalizations (magical, symbolic, or personal).

Baptism’s abstract survival: To “belong” now often means belonging to an abstract, global, or intellectualized church, which requires reflection and interpretation rather than just ritual.