skip the ceremonies

As part of the ongoing debate over new-atheists, there was this contribution.

We must gather shoes together in abundance. Brothers! Follow the gourd! The premise being that apparently atheists aren't able to escape the ritual and ceremony portions of organised religions and still maintain a cohesive social function.

I wouldn't limit this goofy tendency to religious implementation. Corporations or businesses do stuff like this all the time with the pretext of community building or team building or some such. Maybe not always through singing, but many definitely have affirmative statements of worth, value, and purpose. I would argue that it is instead those moments of free flowing conversation and discourse that really create a sense of community, purpose, or value and not the artificially dispensed slogan machines. Even though discussion is often totally without direction, sometimes even without moderation, and must be invoked by the members themselves rather than through some hymnal or canonical book.

But then I'm basically an anarchist.