Debate:Why do we still perform Baptisms?

It has been my understanding, that Baptisms originated with the purpose of cleansing the human soul of Original Sin. That being that human beings are born with the mark of the Sin of Adam and Eve. By becoming baptized, one cleanses his or her self of Original Sin. This was believed to be necessary to be preformed at birth, due to the fact that if a baby died without being baptized, under Catholic beliefs, the baby's soul would be sent to limbo, unable to reach heaven. Now, the Catholic church as dropped this doctrine, on the obvious account of it's controversy. However, my questions stands, if Catholics no longer see the unbaptized as going to hell, and Protestants never had such doctrine, as far as I understand, then why do we do it? I can't imagine a just God sending infants to hell by mere technicality of their birth.--Elamdri 12:17, 11 April 2007 (EDT)

Because we can't spell "perform"? Oh, wait, that error must only be on the topics page. I'll fix it. As far as your question, I have no idea. Sounds pagan to me. Oh wait, I do have a thought - it is symbolic, for the parents and the community, of bringing the baby/child/convert into the Church. The water part is just traditional, a pastor/minister/priest could just give the kid a hug and say "welcome!" Human 22:12, 22 April 2007 (EDT)

Rituals, no matter what their origins, are very important to all religions and cultures: baptism is a ritual that welcomes new humans (or older people for some other denominations) into the church as God's child.