The sign of His arrival: A face in the sky video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIsZ9bXqhxA

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Please stop in http://manaalmahdi.wordpress.com
Please refer to someone incharge fitted whatever doctrine you are.
This is an exceptionally distinguished essence fitted all mankind.

Thanks,
Krulayar

We don’t even buy discount candy after Easter anymore.

Somehow, I missed both day-after-Valentine’s and day-after-Easter this year. I took a tour of a chocolate factory to make up for it. Damn the family history of diabetes, full speed ahead!

The problem is that I don’t think that all ritual or ceremony is founded in religion… nor would I say that there’s conclusive proof that in the past ritual marked religious beliefs. Yet the two have become so intertwined now that we can’t see one without the other.

As a person and a mother, I find this rather sad. …if there is no God, how did all of this happen? How do we account for all of the good in the world?

As a person and a father, I find your statements sad.

First, the “as a person” implies I am not a person because I disagree with you, and the “as a mother” implies I can’t be a good parent because I disagree with you. That’s sad.

Secondly, “how did all of this happen?” is a good question, but then “how did God happen?” is an even more difficult question to answer. So this is not very critical thinking. That’s sad.

Thirdly, the fact that you think that there could only be “good in this world” because some paternalistic sky fairy decided we would all burn in hell forever if we weren’t extra nice to him… well, let me just say I apparently have a more positive view of humanity than you do. That’s sad.

Really, I wouldn’t have said anything except for the “as a mother” part. That was incredibly offensive. You just insulted my wife by indirectly implying she’s not a good mother because she doesn’t share your pathetic delusions. How dare you.

But yes, the main thing here is that a specific binary relationship is being established for long term, and one of the parties in each of the binary relationships is non-sentient and not given a choice.

And that’s my biggest problem with pretty well every ritual involving babies, including and especially the one with the Cruellest Cut. The kid has no input and no choice.

I noticed both little girls looked very lost in this video, and confused when Dawkins glanced down and smiled at her while exiting the stage, but didn’t pick her up like she was expecting. It’s obvious this is for the parents.

Also, everything about the ceremony in this video reminded me of some pretty woo-ish stuff, between the “stardust” and “nature” references and the little white tree things everyone’s expected to wave around, and much of it seems specifically tailored to be an anti-Christening. The fact is, though, that our society puts so much stock into these rituals, and some people really feel the traditions are necessary (in that conservative way), that it is good for people who do want such rituals to know that they have their own options. I don’t know that these ad-hoc anti-Christenings are anything short of what others have said here — creepy.

I suppose MOST atheists do celebrate something around the Winter Solstice. I can tell you that my family does not do anything other than go out for Chinese on Xmas day. We also do not observe birthdays. We don’t even buy discount candy after Easter anymore. Mostly for us, holidays=reason to stay hiding at home and play WoW. The only celebration I might consider taking part in in the future is that I may have a 14th Moon celebration to commemorate an end to being fertile . . .THANK GOODNESS!

It is amazingly difficult to reach this place. Society really tries to make you be a part of its marketing insanity.

Also, any second now the high tech medical industry (or whatever our industry is here in MN) could collapse and, like living in the midsts of the auto industry of Michigan, the population goes unstable in a matter of months.

Next thing you know you’ve got Minnesotans dusting off the old wagon trains for yet another migration.

But yes, the main thing here is that a specific binary relationship is being established for long term, and one of the parties in each of the binary relationships is non-sentient and not given a choice.

There is an added element here that is a bit at odds with modern society. I have been the equivilant of “god parent” twice. Not a ceremony or official thing or anyting. In once case, my two BFF’s had a kid, but dad was in the field for months, so I was substitute second parent, spending hours each week taking care of the babyh. In the other case, I did not do as much direct child care but I was very involved, and in fact, my daughter received the same attention from my friend.

Today, many many years later, I could not tell you the email of any of those people … we’ve totally lost touch. Why? Well, the divorce dance for one thing, and time, and everybody moving to vastly different parts of the country.

What I am getting at is that this ceremony, a new replicate of an older ceremony, carries with it your typical pastoral-agricultural traditional slant to the extent that it can not really have meaning … or do anything over the long term but generate guilt and bad feelings … in either a foraging society or a modern Western society. In both sorts of societies, we humans are busy chasing scarce resources (game, roots, jobs) across a vast landscape, and thus must have fairly dynamic relationships to have any relationships at all.

The ceremony, in short, fetishizes an unreachable goal, causing that goal to be a conflict rather than a benefit.

That is not the only thing wrong with it, but I think that is key.