Why are some moderates insistent on religious rituals?

[arewethereyet]

Where do you find this flavor of Catholics?

I grew up surrounded by Catholics in an area that was well over 90% Catholic.

We weren't supposed to eat before mass (and communion) on Sundays but I was never sure how that translated when Saturday night mass in place of Sunday morning was implemented.  If there was a memo as to how long we were to go without food prior to mass, I missed it.

As for no work on Sunday...I grew up in a farming area.  You can be sure there was work done on Sundays.  The livestock apparently weren't Catholic and someone had to feed and check on them.  

And you can bet your ass that preparation of a meal for a Catholic-sized farm family required work.

^^^Exactly this.  I recall one of my brothers objecting to farm work on a Sunday and our father very patiently explaining to him that 1) God would understand the necessity; 2) Working the farm was what fed us; and 3) If Mikey didn't give over the goldbricking, he'd be taking his next meal through a tube.

Da had a great gift for putting things into perspective.

Boru

My dad grew up on a farm so I spent time (including Sundays) on my grandparents farm.  Some work was shelved on Sundays but some simply couldn't be.

Dad became a large animal veterinarian in private practice...Sundays, Christmas, Easter...didn't matter when a cow was having trouble calving or had milk fever or when a sow was struggling with farrowing.  Obviously the animals on surrounding farms didn't time things around holy days.  They did seem to behave pretty well for Thursday afternoon men's league at the golf course though.  

[GrandizerII]

Some Christians do take the Lord's Day to be a day of rest (as in no work). I used to be one of them. But other than not doing any work, we were free to turn on the lights and all that.

[Der/die AtheistIn]

This is classic. You're all up in other people's business about things that you imagine that they do and you don't approve of what you imagine about them one single bit. You're sitting around literally imagining reasons to be offended with people. You need a hobby or something.

I didn't say I was offended, I just said I disagree with them and asked for a possible reason to what they do what they do. And I have plenty of hobbies. You should stop using the ad hominen fallacy, especially if you have no proof that the person has actually done anything wrong and you're not in a political debate.

[Yonadav]

This is classic. You're all up in other people's business about things that you imagine that they do and you don't approve of what you imagine about them one single bit. You're sitting around literally imagining reasons to be offended with people. You need a hobby or something.

I didn't say I was offended, I just said I disagree with them and asked for a possible reason to what they do what they do. And I have plenty of hobbies. You should stop using the ad hominen fallacy, especially if you have no proof that the person has actually done anything wrong and you're not in a political debate.

Uh yeah sure. Because saying that people are playing monkey see monkey do isn't universally understood to be a scathing criticism or anything.  
And no one who spends as much time as you bitching about season 3 of Rick and Morty has any decent hobbies.

[LastPoet]

If people are having their rituals, that is none of my business. My sisters are catholic and go to church, while I get some work done on my yard or play diablo (I would like to do the latter, but I have a wife). So what?

Its called None of my business.

[The Grand Nudger]

Ritual and ritual observance is the part of religion that provides tangible benefits, so it's not surprising to see them continue even when they've been divorced from their ideological underpinnings.

We just had one this weekend.  Groundhog day, candlemas, and imbolc are all the same holiday. Structure, community, continuity.

[LastPoet]

Ritual and ritual observance is the part of religion that provides tangible benefits, so it's not surprising to see them continue even when they've been divorced from their ideological underpinnings.

We just had one this weekend.  Groundhog day, candlemas, and imbolc are all the same holiday.  Structure, community, continuity.

Last week we helped my bro in law to build a wall. Sturdy and-not-nowing-wtf-we-were doing It went well. We fear Trump might contract us. We could do it in a month with all much wine.

[Der/die AtheistIn]

Uh yeah sure. Because saying that people are playing monkey see monkey do isn't universally understood to be a scathing criticism or anything.  
And no one who spends as much time as you bitching about season 3 of Rick and Morty has any decent hobbies.

No, because there is a difference between criticizing and playing the victim role. I never mentioned that it affects me in any way, shape or form, so I didn't claim I was offended. 
And I didn't spend that time bitching about Rick and Morty. I made a post, a long one, I admit, but it didn't take me that much time to do it. Sometimes I make reviews of shows or books and I don't make a career out of it, most of the time I don't even share them with anyone. This is a hobby. While Homeless Nutter and I have had a conversation about this topic, I only respond him once a day at most and we are not fighting. We are not high class level polite with each other, but we're not antagonistic either.

[Abaddon_ire]

I understand why some moderates insist on baptism, religious wedding and funerals.

Point of order. For the religious the wedding should be listed before the baptism...

I disagree with them, but I understand why they want those things so bad.

So what? As an atheist, I attend weddings, baptisms and funerals. Those are social occasions. What of it? Why are you bent out of shape about it. One goes to, does the social thing and that is the end of it. Sure, there are some conventions that are stupid, for example, when my mother died we broke with tradition at her funeral. Tradition has it that all attendees process to the front row and shake all of the immediate families hand and one stands for that. My father had Alz, so we all knew that if we stood for the handshakes, he would and he was not capable. So we all agreed to remain seated. Us being atheists we didn't care. The religious were scandalised at such abject disrespect of baby jesus. We didn't care.

What is it that you are scared of?

All I can tell you is that long before he died, we got to thrash it out to happy conclusion. No bitterness or rancour or anything of that nature. In fact we came to know each other much better. Best thing I ever did. We got to pass his twilight years together with that mutual bond of understanding. I even moved in with him for a few years in the end when he became unsafe to leave alone.

However, you are young and I am not. Just bear in mind that all things are possible. In time.

However, what I do not understand is if a moderate insist that you shouldn't clean the house or do the laundry on Sunday, even if they claim that God won't punish you. These moderates don't have anything against if you do your homework or learn on Sunday, because repetition helps you learn. They also have nothing against people who work at a job during Sunday or holidays. When I asked them why you shouldn't do certain chores, they responded: "Because you need to relax.". I agree that we all need a break from time to time, but why such a big break on Sunday every time?

Originally, because bible gunderscored rested on the seventh day after his effort of creation (yes, apparently god gets tired). Anyway you get saturday off. Then christians turn up and hijack that and simply move it to sunday to make themselves distinct.

Some of them also insist that you shouldn't eat anything, before you eat the cracker at the Eucharist. Why? Do they think that God, the creator of the Universe would create such a stupid ritual to give you luck and would care if you ate something or not before?

The fasting thing was catholic doctrine. The thinking was not to pollute the reverend host with whatever it was yo last ate. Biology wrecked that

If they're doing it for social reasons only, why bother not to eat before? People are not going to look through your stomach. Are they afraid that someone might ask them if they ate and they don't want to lie?

My father rigoursly applied the 4 hour rule, why? Beats me. Neither his wife nor his four atheist children did.He was raised in a strict catholic family, so make of that what you will.

Finally, the moderates that I know insist with this rule, tell me that they have religion just for comfort. Why does this give them comfort? If they're imagining that a God protects them, why even bother with certain rituals that nobody cares about? Do they like the game monkey see, monkey do so much that they'll do it when it's completely unnecessary?

It's a desire for some modicum of control. Two weeks ago a work colleague died by means of a random traffic accident. Driver next to her had a diabetic incident and went all over. She took evasive action and ended up tangling with a 40 ft truck. The truck won and she died in grisly fashion. Tragic.

Those of a religious bent were straight in there with their death cult. It is comforting for people to think that the suddenly, arbitrarily dead live on in some fashion.

Now as an atheist, one could wade in with the unsympathetic boots of arrogant certainty of how religion is fake, but that would be entirely insensitive and outrageous. She is gone. Permanently. That happy face is not coming back, not here, not heaven not in any magic spirit world.

But is this the time to spout atheist thoughts on the matter? I think not. This is a time to sit down and shut the F up.