midnight

I know many people find religious rituals comforting. The idea of an action that will bring a desired result usually in something that is out of ones control. I know there are behavioral rituals as well that aren't religious but most of them also seem to be practiced because of an equally irrational motivation. I'm wondering what others think of rituals and there place in secular living or lack there of.

I was raised in a family with strong catholic ties so I witnessed religious rituals a lot. I think the illusion of control can be comforting but so can various other vices that are generaly thought of as unhealthy. So I'm not sure where I stand on the ritual thing.

girlwriter

Well, obviously rituals can become more of a vice or mindless habit than anything, but I don't think that means they're a bad thing. I also don't think we can realisticly expect to avoid them.

For example, here we have a ritual of welcoming new users to the board. Celebrating birthdays is a perfectly harmless ritual. I think the question you have to ask is, are your rituals getting in the way of something more important? An example of that would be Christmas. Even celebrating it as a secular holiday, it can be a mess. You know, we're all talking about joy and peace and family and generosity, but what are we doing to celebrate these things? Stressing ourselves and our families and friends with a million committments, gifts that half the time aren't even used, all kinds of decorative parafanalia that clutters up the place and (whew!) the list goes on and on. With all that hullaballo, who ever actually gets any peace or quality time with loved ones?

And of course, religious (or other) rituals can cause harm. They tend to help brainwash people and get in the way of critical thinking. And when they serve to offer false comfort, as is so common with Christian rituals, then I say throw em out the window and start fresh!

Just my 'off the cuff' opinion.

girlwriter

braces_for_impact

I think rituals were invented when primitive man first started to gather in large groups. People can have trouble getting along for extended periods of time in closed quarters. Rituals provide a sense of purpose and reminds everyone that they share a common bond.

That being said, for the most part we are not primitive anymore, and I think that rituals that are attempting to provide more than a social function are useless unless thay actually include problem solving or action as part of the ritual.

In short, hands that help are better than lips that pray.

emotional

Rituals are as important today as in the past, if not more so. Rituals are patterns that provide certainty. In our day and age, when science has destroyed most of man's certainty about anything, they are important for providing certainty in an uncertain world.

RevDahlia

Wait a minute... Emotional, how has "science" destroyed certainty?

emotional

Nothing is permament, nothing is unchanging, nothing is sacred, thus much we know from scientific investigation. The skies, once thought to be perfect and unchanging, are full of upheavals, supernovas and changes. The biological species, one thought to be fixed, are moving all the time. All is in a state of flux, all activities are like writing on sand.

RevDahlia

But.. it's not like science causes those things... it just describes them.

It would seem that the flux is the issue... not the fact that science describes it! Shooting the messenger much?

Science does not concern itself with what is sacred. That's not its job. It has, in some instances, disproved concepts that were previously held to be sacred.. but that's not the same thing. Besides, a scientific explanation for a thing does not compromise its sacredness, or shouldn't.

Ritual is, IMO, important for coping with uncertainty. But uncertainty has always existed. Blaming science for uncertainty is pretty disingenuous.

emotional

Look, I accept science, but I don't have to like it. Somehow I very much envy the medievals with their geocentric system and their orderly, certain world-view.

I used to do rituals in past, when I dabbled in Wicca, but I don't do them anymore. The idea that the right colour of candle in the right position could change one's fate struck me as insane from the very onset. Ritual as a cohesive, social endeavour is one thing; ritual as magical, fate-changing is a totally different matter. That's superstition.

SLD

You know, we need some freethinking rituals!!

Any ideas?

SLD

RevDahlia

Yes.