NorthOfNorth wrote on Apr 21^st, 2012 at 10:55am:


Okay so rituals are symbolic sets of actions.

I disagree that we have any "need" for them. Especially in a religious context.

SOB

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 21^st, 2012 at 11:00am:

So when you are introduced to new people formally (or even informally) what do you do? What actions will you perform? What actions do you expect the other party to perform?

Annie Anthrax wrote on Apr 21^st, 2012 at 11:05am:


Fine Annie. That is interesting.

Not that it has anything to do with the topic. It looks like it was a diversion employed to show that humans have some kind of innate need for religion. Thanks a lot for your input but humans have no such need. We are born with no beliefs. We have a need to learn.

I have said multiple times that we have no need for ritual in a religious context.

SOB

With regard to rituals and the human innate need for them... There's nothing so stark as the realisation of its fundamental utility when in a foreign culture... One where you are not aware of the rituals that all those within the alien culture appear to innately understand. The reaction is, of course, the aptly named culture-shock.

Religion, over millennia, has collected, enhanced and created human rituals within the society it (once) serves/d. We 'know' ourselves as who we are through many avenues, including religious ones, whether we believe in god or not... That is the point of de Botton's "Atheism 2.0"

You do not need to believe in god nor the myths that each respective culture developed around the notion of god, to accept that those rituals likely have had a profound and indelible effect on your sense of self.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 8:28am:




Can't i also, morally, and legitimately, be an investor in my own interests ?

And if i am [an investor in my own interests], then shouldn't i also become in some sense a judge of myself [and my actions] ?  .....a judge who can also hold back, and stop myself, from acting against my own 'best interests' ?


Romans 3:5
But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
6  God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?


I don't know if each of us is somehow predestined to be either 'good' or 'bad'.
But i would like to think that i can have some influence over my fate.

But i also know that this world still has an influence upon me, sometimes still causing me to make poor choices.

e.g.
The bible gives the account that King David was an adulterer and a murderer [2 Samuel 11], [and though God rebuked David] David still, in the end, enjoyed God's favour.

Is God inconsistent ?

Maybe.

Psalms 32:1
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2  Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity.....






NoN,

If you can't believe in the existence of an invisible God, can you perhaps believe that a behaviour which we choose to repeat will become habitual [in us] ?


Dictionary;
habitual = = done constantly or as a habit.


And can you believe that a ['good' or 'bad'] behaviour can have an influence [for 'good' or 'bad'] upon our general character ?

And as sentient beings, should we have a care, as to what 'type' of behaviours we choose to engage in, frequently ?

OR, should we humans [as social animals] try to NOT judge [i.e. to NOT have a care, as to] whether our conduct [our behaviour], is either 'good' or 'bad' ?

Is trying to make [i.e. >> CREATE <<] an 'moral' judgement, about what actions 'are' good, or, bad, pointless ?

Should we rather, always engage in pleasurable behaviour, whenever we can, simply because the behaviour is pleasurable to us ?

Coz, hey!, that is what we are all here for!       




ALONG CAME A SPIDER - the movie

Yadda wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 2:00am:

And, of course, I agree with you... "None is saved from himself except by himself".

Yadda wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 2:00am:

Of course.

Yadda wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 2:00am:

Yes.

Yadda wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 2:00am:

No.

Yadda wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 2:00am:

No.

Yadda wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 2:00am:

No.

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 9:01am:

Yes, of course... rituals wax, wane, morph, transmogrify, come into use and fall out of use.

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 9:01am:

Not so weird. I am not implying that science is a religion, I'm asking if you embrace it as if it were... a crypto-religion?

Religion, for believers, answers (at least in their minds) their great existential questions and eases their existential angst... Others use philosophy to address the same... But is it science?