What does it mean to "bless" something?

[Cyberman]

"Lord, we cleared this land. We ploughed it, sowed and harvested it, and we cooked the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating it if we hadn't done it ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank the Lord just the same for the food we're about to eat. Amen."
-- Jimmy Stewart, Shenandoah

[Anomalocaris]

What does it mean to "bless" something? What does it impart in the object blessed?

It means "I am gullible and childish". It imparts upon the object being blessed the earnest wish that "you are gullible enough to feel grateful to me for nothing".

[Brakeman]

The "Blessed" question goes hand in hand with the "Sacred" question. What does it mean when something is sacred?
How is the wood from the cross any more "Sacred" than the wooden seat my ass sits on? They're both grown from trees and fabricated by man.

[Angrboda]

The "Blessed" question goes hand in hand with the "Sacred" question. What does it mean when something is sacred?
How is the wood from the cross any more "Sacred" than the wooden seat my ass sits on? They're both grown from trees and fabricated by man.

I'm on my tablet, so if I'm more curt than usual, consider it a blessing.

I'm not a Christian, so I can't quote you chapter and verse, but a quick scan of wikipedia informs me that a blessing is the opposite of a curse, and that it basically means to make holy. As someone else noted, this has to do with the concept of the sacred, and is related to the notion of ritual purity. The best explanation of the concept of ritual purity for the non-religious is one that I heard in a lecture on Hinduism. Let's suppose you're in a restaurant eating a salad. You pick the food up on your fork, put it in your mouth and swallow it. Now suppose that as you're bringing a forkful of salad, dripping with dressing to your mouth, it falls off your fork and lands on your tie. When it was going into your mouth, it was perfectly clean. But now that it is on your tie, it has become something wholly different; it is now dirt, and has made your tie unclean. The food on your tie is no different than the food that went in your mouth, but we think about it differently, probably on account of its relationship to function and teleology, along moral, practical, or spiritual dimensions. In your mouth, the food is serving its purpose and not interfering with your tie's purpose to make you look beautiful. On your tie, it has perverted its purpose and that of your tie. That in a nutshell is ritual purity.

It brings to mind a couple of anecdotes. I used to be a smoker, and one of my friends from college is a professional clown (honest, he is). One afternoon, I put a cigarette in my mouth, and he grabbed it and stuck the filter end in his nostril. When I exclaimed, he plucked it out of his nose and offered it back to me. When I told him that I no longer wanted it, he retorted that "now I thought it was dirty!" It might have been a bit obnoxious, but the fact is that the tar and other pollution that I would have inhaled into my lungs would have been far more disgusting than putting a few smudges of his snot in my mouth. But we don't think of it that way. And as an ex-smoker, even though I can rationally, abstractly acknowledge the absurdity of considering his snot unclean and my smoke acceptable, emotionally I'd never be able to "see it that way." That too is ritual purity. Things like snot and spit and semen are seen as disgusting if encountered, say, in our food, though there's nothing inherently dangerous or unclean about them in and of themselves. (Mmmmmmmm..... semen.)

A closing anecdote. The Ganges river in India is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, yet Hindus trek their daily to wash themselves in the waters, thus purifying themselves. Obviously, the purity being sought isn't one of freedom from material contaminants. One of my philosophy groups was discussing morality, and the subject of the juxtaposition of the material dirtiness of the water, with that of the belief that contact with the water was purifying was brought up. One of the members commented that if anyone who bathed in the Ganges thought that they were getting clean by doing so, then they were in denial. To which my friend remarked that he thought that that was in Egypt. (ba doom pah!)

[Captain Colostomy]

Yes, Apo....a blessing...

[Michael Schubert]

What does it mean to "bless" something? What does it impart in the object blessed?

I really don't think it means anything. I think it's just a fancy way of saying "thank you" or "good day".

[Brakeman]

If it doesn't do anything, or impart any qualities to it's object, what is the point of blessing, calling something sacred, or anointing anything? If the words are so meaningless why is the bible full of such crap?

[Drich]

If it doesn't do anything, or impart any qualities to it's object, what is the point of blessing, calling something sacred, or anointing anything? If the words are so meaningless why is the bible full of such crap?

To bless is to wish well or from God is to protect, and prosper.

Calling something sacred, if one is not an Old Testament Jew, is borderline idolatry. In Christianity the unclean/clean classifications things had in OT times is at an end.

Biblically, the only reason to anoint someone with oil as a Christian is if they were sick, as in James 5. The oil kept them hydrated, to soothed and was a traditional way to offer comfort.

The bible is not full of useless crap, you speak of religion. You have to read your bible to be able to discern between the two.

[Brakeman]

To bless is to wish well or from God is to protect, and prosper.

Calling something sacred, if one is not an Old Testament Jew, is borderline idolatry. In Christianity the unclean/clean classifications things had in OT times is at an end.

Biblically, the only reason to anoint someone with oil as a Christian is if they were sick, as in James 5. The oil kept them hydrated, to soothed and was a traditional way to offer comfort.

OK, thanks, you've touched upon the subjects, but when the Lord's prayer tells us to bless food, we are not wishing the food well, it's dead. What does it mean in that context?

You say that basically only an old testament jew can deem something sacred, but why? When only souls really matter, why was there ever reverence for objects?

What does un-clean / clean really mean to a christian? Is it just for the jews?

Lastly, though I contend that pouring oil on one's head doesn't help hydration in any way, anointing was obviously very big in the bible. Even the word Messiah means "anointed one." What does it do apart from what does it signify? Why would god come up with such a strange ritual?

Thanks for your answers, I'm truly interested in your POV.

[Max_Kolbe]

I am a Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church so I'm asked to give formal blessings to all sorts of things. At least among Catholics and the Orthodox to bless something means to say something good, wish good and impart that which is good on to something. It is what we call a Sacramental. That is, it isn't a sacrament in that it imparts God's saving grace, but it has the ability to lead one to that grace. It's real affect is probably psychological, in that one knows that they or an item have been set apart or had good thoughts wished upon them. It certainly isn't magic (although I suspect some of my parishioners think it is) and of course, we live in a world where bad things happen, so bad things are going to happen no matter what. For example, I blessed a car the other day. That doesn't mean the driver will never get in an accident or get a ticket. That's probably more information than you wanted.