Some corners of the net are getting a lot of incredulous chuckles about a photo of a Russian Orthodox priest blessing computers in the wake of the recent ransomware attacks. Our Patheos neighbor Hemant Mehta at “The Friendly Atheist”, is one those getting a lot of shares of it. (Though he’s unfortunately promoting the “Russia hacked our elections!!1!” paranoid conspiracy theory in the process.)
Regular readers of TZP know that I hold no truck with state endorsement of religion, and having the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church do any sort of ritual at the Ministry of Internal Affairs tromps all over that important line. And Patriarch Kirill is apparently more than a bit of a jerk, who thinks marriage equality poses a “significant threat for the existence of the human race” and spoken in favor of ISIL’s declaration of an Islamic caliphate, because in his eyes even crazy and violent advocates of a different religion are better than secularism. So, you know, screw that guy.
But blessing important tools is a common practice. Indeed, here in heavily Catholic Baltimore, the Cardinal used to perform an annual Labor Day ritual blessing of worker’s tools, though that has fallen by the wayside as the economy shifted. (Hmm. I’m now feeling inspired to try to pull off an interfaith version of that old ritual this fall.) And in Japan, Shinto priests have a blessing for personal electronics like cell phones.
One doesn”t have to believe in supernaturalism to understand that rituals involving an object change the way we interact with that object. Even the most hardheaded rationalist materialist treats their wedding ring in a special manner.
While I don’t want anyone making sacrifices to the Great God Com Pu Ter, in the manner of innumerable sci–fi stories, perhaps a little ritual juju can help inspire users to exercise more care and follow security procedures more diligently.
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