Baptism, Tradition, and Judgement

I find it humorous that people can not just let us not believe what we want not to believe.

My aunt called and asked if we had the baptismal gown that has been
passed down throughout the generations. I told her that my sister who
has a 4 year old would have been the last to use it.

"YOUR SON IS NOT BAPTIZED?!"

/facepalm/

So, my father asks me a couple of days later if my son is baptized. I
tell him that he is not and he should know that. His first argument is
that of Pascal's Wager which I told him was a cop-out and a waste of
time.

I then tell him that I think it would be offensive to the church if an
atheist family had their child baptized because it would not be
sincere. (this was an anti-argument)

His second argument was that we were not giving him the option of being
baptized and making his mind up for him. I was stunned by this one, jaw
dropped, then I started laughing... in my head. I informed my father
that if anything we are giving him more options, and NOT making his
mind up for him. He now has the option of choosing if he would like to
partake in a religion, choosing to be baptized or not. I am not making
the choice for him at birth.

"Well what if he dies before he can do that?"

"As an atheist, obviously I believe that it would make zero difference.
This is also what makes your religion so messed up, a child dies
unbaptized and your god sends him to hell or purgatory?! What if your
religion is wrong?! All of you burn then? There is little basis of good
vs. evil just whether you paid enough tribute to their gods!"

None of these arguments can he actually come back against, instead he
just comes back with a different one, I feel like I am playing Atheist
Bingo.

He then brings up tradition. It is tradition to be baptized, have first
communion, etc. I can almost respect that, although I do not think you
should do those things merely out of tradition. This just seems like an
entirely messed up idea. If we hung on to all of the traditions of the
past we would have some odd habits nowadays. Furthermore what is
preventing us from having our own traditions? What is preventing us
from have our own rites of passage? Perhaps we choose a couple of
milestone birthdays and make them extra important. Perhaps for the 10th
birthday we go camping for a week and learn about nature. I think the
child would walk away from that with more experience and feel more like
an adult than getting a weird flavored cracker put in their mouth and
splashed in the face with water.

My father and I debate things all the times and we do so with civility.
There were no personal attacks or raised voices during this discussion,
which is the way it should be if someone wants to talk about these
subject matters.