Rain comments on The Gift I Give Tomorrow - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Raemon 11 January 2012 04:02AM

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Comment author: Rain 15 January 2012 01:26:09AM 1 point [-]

Read this chapter of Secular Wholeness for an engineer's take on the purpose and usefulness of rituals in non-religious life.

Summary:

They give time-structure to our lives on the daily, weekly, and annual levels.
They assist and encourage the formation of trust and community between people.
They give shape to public expressions of powerful emotions: expressions of grief, as at funerals; and of joy, as at weddings, graduations, birthdays and anniversaries.
They help to reorient and stabilize our own feelings when we need to comprehend and cope with crucial life passages.

Comment author: Raemon 15 January 2012 04:53:19AM * 0 points [-]

That's an excellent article. Thanks Rain.

Among other things, gave me a definition of ritual that was actually useful.