Rituals

So, I'm ready to write about this now. No 250x250 picture, just a post.

In society, both this one and many others, we have a large focus on rituals: rituals for life, death, and living, rites of passage and yearly events. A vast majority of these, are based, if not exactly, religious rituals. This phenomenon is probably linked to the same part of human nature which makes us inherently more likely to want to believe in a higher power, a God, Goddess, or genderless higher power. Having been raised, grown up, and constantly bombarded with Catholic beliefs (and no little sister, I am not Catholic, as the first thing is for you to *believe* the Church's teachings) I was raised with a knowledge of the more pagan-esque Christian rituals, and upon delving into Pagan and Wiccan beliefs see the striking similarities, and seem pretty polarized on many issues of religion.

I, on a personal level, find the biggest problem with Christianity and "Modern" religions that they teach faith and obedience to clergy, not spirituality. It seems to be more important to many people that instead of encouraging people to find their own interpretations of the religious teachings (which is what the core of Protestantism was supposed to be) religious leaders seem to make religion about politics and pushing their personal agendas, as opposed to basing it on what is in sacred texts, ie citing old testament ideas which were specifically said to be invalid by Jesus.

Funerals are peaks of ritual, showcasing the pagan influence from the beginning to the end.