{"id":34160,"date":"2018-05-31T05:45:20","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T09:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=34160"},"modified":"2018-05-30T21:09:55","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T01:09:55","slug":"designing-rituals-for-secularists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/05\/designing-rituals-for-secularists\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing Rituals for Secularists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Human beings seem to have a need for rituals at some level.\u00a0 Religions are traditionally the source of those rituals.\u00a0 So what do you do if you don\u2019t have a religion?\u00a0 A new online venture is rushing into that void, offering to create rituals for secularists.<\/p>\n

Religious rituals mark and heighten the significance of certain milestone events in life:\u00a0 coming of age (confirmation), getting married (weddings), the birth of a baby (baptism), death (funerals).\u00a0 In addition, churches provide rituals for praise (worship), thanksgiving (prayer), the forgiveness of sins (confession), and the Gospel itself (Holy Communion).<\/p>\n

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Different churches have different theologies about these rituals\u2013are they merely symbolic acts, or are they means by which God actually conveys His blessings?\u2013with some churches distrusting all formal rituals, even though they often come up with their own anyway.<\/p>\n

But what do Nones do when they need a ritual?\u00a0 And, if they aren\u2019t getting married or having children or dying (yet), what kind of rituals do they think they need?<\/p>\n

From Sigal Samuel,\u00a0A Design Lab Is Making Rituals for Secular People<\/a>\u00a0in The Atlantic<\/em>:<\/p>\n

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Religions have long been the dominant suppliers of rituals, gamely stepping in with an answer to every question from\u00a0How do I celebrate the birth of my baby boy?\u00a0<\/em>to\u00a0How can I transfer my own sins onto a live chicken?<\/em>\u00a0But in an age of increasing religious disaffiliation, these rituals now feel hollow to millions of people. And even when they don\u2019t, there\u2019s a wide range of new experiences for which the traditional rituals offer no script: How do I cope with my rage after receiving a parking ticket? How can I keep a smart car from exacerbating my loneliness and narcissism? What can I do to mourn the death of my laptop?<\/section>\n

Although there is no single agreed-upon definition, a ritual is typically a deliberate action performed in a set sequence that improves our emotional state, by reframing an experience in a way that feels meaningful.<\/p>\n

At the\u00a0Ritual Design Lab<\/a>\u00a0in Silicon Valley, a small team of \u201cinteraction designers\u201d is working to generate new rituals for modern life, with an eye to user experience. Created by Kursat Ozenc and Margaret Hagan, the lab crafts rituals for both individuals and organizations, including big hitters like Microsoft. The team\u2019s website offers a Ritual Design Hotline with a tantalizing promise: \u201cYou tell us your problem. We will make you a ritual.\u201d Meanwhile, its Ritual Inventory invites you to add any interesting ritual you\u2019ve made or seen to its growing database. And its app, IdeaPop, helps you brainstorm and create your own rituals.<\/section>\n

Ritual Design Lab has its roots in Stanford\u2019s Institute of Design, where Ozenc and Hagan both teach. In 2015, they proposed a new course on ritual design. To their surprise, more than 100 students signed up. Most were secular. \u201cThe interest was huge\u2014so we thought, we should harness this interest,\u201d Ozenc told me. \u201cThe new generation, they want bite-size spirituality instead of a whole menu of courses. Design thinking can offer this, because the whole premise of design is human-centeredness. It can help people shape their spirituality based on their needs. Institutionalized religions somehow forget this\u2014that at the center of any religion should be the person.\u201d<\/p>\n

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[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Ponder those last two sentences!\u00a0 \u201cAt the center of any religion should be the person.\u201d\u00a0 Not God.\u00a0 The person, whose spirituality needs to be \u201cbased on their needs.\u201d<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
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Does this sound like a formula for extreme shallowness?<\/p>\n

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Check out the Ritual Design Lab website<\/a>, which offer rituals upon such life issues as when your candidate loses the election (break plates); when you get a new credit card (sit in front of a photo of Elizabeth Warren, special music playing, and read the \u201cterms and conditions\u201d); when a disruptive colleague gets fired (write down everything you liked and disliked about the person, then put the writings in a box, set it on fire, and have the rest of the office roast marshmallows as it burns); getting a parking ticket (sauteing the ticket and eating it).<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
<\/section>\n

And they think Christian rituals are \u201chollow\u201d?<\/p>\n

There are already secular rituals:\u00a0 the flag salute; singing the National Anthem before sporting events, along with the additional ritual of either standing respectfully or kneeling in protest; making toasts; etc.<\/p>\n

Why aren\u2019t these enough?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illustration:\u00a0 Hip, Hip, Hurrah!<\/a>\u00a0(1888) by Danish artist\u00a0Peder Severin Kr\u00f8yer.<\/a>\u00a0Photo by UFA66, Public Domain, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=26417976<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human beings seem to have a need for rituals at some level.\u00a0 Religions are traditionally the source of those rituals.\u00a0 So what do you do if you don\u2019t have a religion?\u00a0 A new online venture is rushing into that void, offering to create rituals for secularists. Religious rituals mark and heighten the significance of certain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":34457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,37,39,44],"tags":[6995,6992,2507,6989,6998,4891],"class_list":["post-34160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-psychology","category-religions","category-technology","tag-christian-rituals","tag-christian-worship","tag-nones","tag-rituals","tag-rituals-for-nones","tag-secularists"],"yoast_head":"\nDesigning Rituals for Secularists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We seem to have a need for rituals. Religion provides rituals to mark significant occasions, such as birth, adulthood, marriage, and death. But what if you don't have a religion? 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