I have strongly suspected this for quite some time based on my limited experience with people so I was surprised you came out and said it
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A couple of close friends of mine made the credo to pedo change and when I asked for Biblical justification, it was honestly incoherent or just repeating very simple arguments ("cuz Colossians 2..."). One guy specifically said something to the effect of "because all my heroes are paedobaptist." I was dismayed by the lack of effort and biblical conviction involved in such a big transition.
I've written it on this board more than once, but I've been on the board for a long time too.
To be fair, some people may have accepted the argument(s) they've been exposed to, but lack the sophistication to replicate verbally what they have intuited as true; or they understand certain texts play a big role (Col.2:11-2 for one side, or Act.8:12 for the other), and so they rest there but do not actually grasp how practiced teachers move from text to application.
In my judgment, I do not believe many Christians across the moderate-to-serious spectrum (concerning the faith) actually think about the mark of baptism, or about how "deep" it goes. To them, it is like a dandelion plant, looking for all the world like surface vegetation. And to be honest, I think many churches present it in an essentially shallow manner. "Baptism is a human work." "Baptism is a statement I make to God or the world." "Baptism is something I did, a few years ago, kind of like my H.S. graduation and drop-in party on my parent's porch. There are a few cards in a box, I spent the money I got, I have a diploma on the wall (or it's also in the box), I don't think about it hardly at all, but I am baptized (just like I am a H.S. graduate)."
Well, I say baptism (regardless of the theological soil) may have a deceptive, surface presentation; but in fact has a taproot that has sunk down to the very core of one's theological identity, putting out many filaments that one scarcely acknowledges into a thousand crevices. So, "pulling oneself up by his baptism" is quite far from rearranging the furniture of one's theological house. But few teachers tell their students this reality, or encourage the pupils on a regular, reminding basis to "improve your baptism." I think some teachers are afraid, if they
make too much of baptism their hearers will adopt a quasi-sacerdotalist attitude toward baptism. So instead, they put a major effort into teaching the opposite, constantly insinuating that baptism mustn't be over-valued.
If baptism is mainly superficial, more than window dressing but not much more than a milestone--or so men are taught--then when they are moved to switch out, they don't think it will be a major transplant at all. Probably some people who experience the transition never remember it later as traumatic. Others go through a lot more tribulation than was necessary, if they had only been better served by their spiritual healthcare provider. And some people experience such difficulty they start to drift theologically, unable to root properly again (no fault of the soil in the pot). It's happened more than once right before our eyes on the PB.
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