I've needed guided ritual in my life at times in the past. At the moment, I don't unless I am faced with tragedy. Then it is comforting and helps put me in a space where I can figure out what to do.
The OH is Jewish and atheist/agnostic. He participates in some family rituals not to connect to anything supernatural, but because they are familiar and culturally important to him. So I think the desire for ritual can often be entirely separate from the desire for a spiritual path.
a true scientist cannot be an atheist, for that is an absolute point of view. I think that's one definition of atheism, but I've heard a number of other definitions that I think are valid. (Let's just say I think the definition is "too black and white.")
Regarding your comments about how too many choices can contribute to negative emotions, there are some interesting books on this being written lately.
However, I don't think our parents had more of life figured out than current generations of young adults do. In my parents' generation, alcohol figured heavily as a way of dealing with the stresses of life. In some cases it worked well, but it doesn't strike me as particularly Buddhist or centered or "just living."
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Date: 2004-10-11 10:18 am (UTC)The OH is Jewish and atheist/agnostic. He participates in some family rituals not to connect to anything supernatural, but because they are familiar and culturally important to him. So I think the desire for ritual can often be entirely separate from the desire for a spiritual path.
a true scientist cannot be an atheist, for that is an absolute point of view.
I think that's one definition of atheism, but I've heard a number of other definitions that I think are valid. (Let's just say I think the definition is "too black and white.")
Regarding your comments about how too many choices can contribute to negative emotions, there are some interesting books on this being written lately.
However, I don't think our parents had more of life figured out than current generations of young adults do. In my parents' generation, alcohol figured heavily as a way of dealing with the stresses of life. In some cases it worked well, but it doesn't strike me as particularly Buddhist or centered or "just living."