In short, as long as people don’t literally believe in the content behind these rituals, it seems rather harmless. Of course we are not yet to the point where everyone simply takes them as myth but we are getting there. A Baptism, for example could be seen as a simple initiation into a larger community. One thing I think American culture lacks is any kind of real ritual for entering adulthood (beyond college). Our families don’t usually have any kind of shared rites of passage. I’ve been trying to think of some for my 14yo son (ideas are welcome — a secular bar mitvah?)

The future of religious thought will very likely be like some of those “The Philosophy of” books you see.

You know, “The Philosophy of the Simpsons,” “The Philosophy of House MD,” etc. People read those books because they are curious about the philosophical framework behind these shows or movies — not that they believe they are real but they want to know how the author weaves real philosophy into a fictional work.

That’s how we will all someday view the ancient “holy” texts — interesting, possibly insightful but not literal. The same goes for rituals. We geeks, for example, may have parties or events in which we dress up as Star Wars characters (or Harry Potter). Even though we live out the philosophy of those characters to some degree, we all recognize it’s just a fun party (kind of like what the Swedish person was saying). We don’t literally believe we are part of the Empire or the Rebellion. However, such an event may bring up useful philosophical discussions (what lessons can we learn from Yoda, for example — What Would Yoda Do?).

In short, as Sweden is, so will the rest of the world be one day. Anytime you want to see the future for the rest of us, I would recommend looking at the Scandinavian countries.

And I, for one, am totally in favor of it. I think it’s a great way to keep a lot of the stuff that is genuinely useful and good and comforting about religion… without tying it to the unfalsifiable and unsupportable belief in an invisible friend. If I could convert to secular Judaism without feeling like an idiot, I’d seriously consider it.

You should read John Shelby Spong’s book Why Christianity Must Change Or Die since he’s actually a progressive Christian who thinks the bible is just a story and in this book, he fully admits that the role of bishops is to wear fancy clothes and walk around: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shelby_Spong

I pretty much second that original post from Sweden. I’m an atheist, but I think it’s different in general to be one here than, say, in many parts of US.
Finland is a Lutheran country with the best education system in the world(by research). I’d say this country’s culture is generally like the original poster described the same in Sweden.

Both are generally highly educated countries, with relatively small dependance on the “ruling” of religion. I know that most of the people I know, don’t want to give up the originally-religious-traditions just for the sake of it being part of the culture. Belonging to church is pretty “harmless” and nobody really expects you to go to church often.

Some (maybe) interesting facts:
- Today there’s less than 80% of Finns that belong to church.
- In 1981 it was 90%.
- In 2000 it was down to 85%
- In 2003, when the legistlation concerning the freedom of religion changed, Free Thinkers association opened the Eroakirkosta.fi website, through which you can resign from church with couple of clicks
- Eroakirkosta.fi stimulated the resigning process and the convenience really made the difference for the decision making among people
- I resigned in 2008
- In 2008 alone, over 52,000 people resigned from the church (1% of the whole population)

Estimate says, that by 2020, less than 70% belong to church in Finland.

Everyone can make their own conclusions about relations between things, but is it a coincidence that Finland (all Nordic countries are pretty much like that) is the pioneer in equality of genders, has a woman president, is one of the least corrupted countries, again, has a high quality education system, etc.

I don’t know anyone here, who DOESN’T believe in evolution. Some might believe that there could be something else in the beginning, but still wouldn’t deny the science.

Also, Christmas is a secular holiday. The Christians stole the concept and the date from the pagans and threw Christ in there as an afterthought (Christ was actually born on July 3 or 4, I believe). Let’s be honest, Christmas is about peace on earth and spreading good will. That’s as humanistic as it gets.