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.