Who cares about wedding rings? They have as much or as little meaning as you want them to - so do most things for that matter. Bur people wear them, and we usually don't mock those that do.

Ok, this is not about rituals or полемикa, it's about how it's connected to the one's belief in God. And I already mentioned how - if you believe in God AND the Holy books you just follow the God's will and that's reflected in your life...
But this is not to say that following rituals is above the moral behavior or our treatment of the fellow human beings...Honesty, morality, integritity - all come first...above all the rituals...
The problems is if you don't follow the religious teaching, then it becomes all relative. What do then measure your "morality" against then?

Ok, this is not about rituals or полемикa, it's about how it's connected to the one's belief in God. And I already mentioned how - if you believe in God AND the Holy books you just follow the God's will and that's reflected in your life...
The problems is if you don't follow the religious teaching, then it becomes all relative. What do then measure your "morality" against then?
.
I don't agree with that, I believe that a sense of morality predates any religious writings. I thinkthatsome of the religious dogmais based on this inherent sense of morality - that's why, for the most part,it really doesn't matter which religion you follow. Following traditions and rituals (not necessarily religious ones), helps people focus and stay connected with this inherent morality, amist all the distractions and temptations of the outside world.

all going round and round....
1- spirituality does not need to be rooted in religion, it's been said again and again.....
2- morality does need to be dictated by 2- 5 thousand year old books, morality simply follows karmic rules of cause and effect,
3- organized religion is inherently full of hypocrisy and, although provides sense of community, does not nurture free thought
4-ritual is healthy as anchor and as symbol of "belonging to your tribe", but when taken to extreme becomes excluding, limiting and tool of manipulation and control.
5- all of the discussions in previous posts are limited to western religions with their "vertical" hierarchy ( that by itself implies control ) and don't even begin to touch other systems of thought with more organic, "all is one" concepts.

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Happy New Year to all! Virtual hugs!

Народ, религия - это ничто иное как форма общественного сознания. Это не панацея, не истиный путь, не спасение, а всего лишь форма общественного сознания. Поэтому Юля, ваши узкие джинсы были осуждены представительницей, вернее ее носителем. Именем религии было совершено много убийств и страшных преступлений, ничего не умеющими общего с символом той самой веры.

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Happiness is a stage of mind

Этика не обязательно является частью религии. Как раз поворот к гумманизму в 18 веке вывел этику из-под эгиды религии. Но не все страны прошли через Реформацию и Просвещение. Мусульмане остались там где они и были 500 лет назад. А сейчас, когда глобализация свела все народы в единое информационное пространство, их социальные устои и вера в том числе коренным образом противостоят остальному миру. Вот отсюда и исламский радикализм и его оружие, терроризм.

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Happiness is a stage of mind

Galina, you are right (Y) a lot of these rituals have a lot to do with ethics...like something like eating kosher meat has to do with ethical treatment of the animal, killing of the animal in a way the animal would not feel pain or suffer...hunting, for example is prohibited in Judaism - you should not kill an animal for sport, and so on...

But this is not to say that following rituals is above the moralbehavior or our treatment of the fellow human beings...Honesty,morality, integrity - all come first...above all the rituals...
I think so, too. But often organized religions provide the moral behavior baseline to the faithful for motives other than God's directives.

***********.youtube.com/watch?v=whLYM9o946w
this is а fun video...и только не надо потом говорить. что религия "does not nurture free thought"....(tr)
:-D

Psychologist Matt J. Rossano argues that religion emerged after morality and built upon morality by expanding the social scrutiny of individual behavior to include supernatural agents. By including ever watchful ancestors, spirits and gods in the social realm, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups. The adaptive value of religion would have enhanced group survival.