The preparation for the civil confirmation includes a course provided by a humanist organization. The course emphasizes ethics and critical thinking. Very good. Critical thinking is what all kids should learn. Don't accept old dogmatic truths.
I think the term coming-of -age ceremony is better than civil confirmation. Unlike the Christian confirmation, there is nothing being conformed. It's rather a kind of cancellation, rejecting all the religious nonsense associated with baptism.
(Picture taken last summer, on a farm with the ruins of an old monastery from the 13th century. The farm has a micro-brewery which makes very good beer. On the wall inside the farm house I read this quote by Martin Luther: "It's better to think of church in the ale-house (bierstube) than to think of the ale-house in church.")
