What are advantages and disadvantages of having rituals?

Answer 1

A ritual is an indirect activity that makes another activity better but under fewer conditions. The other activity that we try to improve is not necessary a movement and may be an effort to have peace of mind or control of behavior. To understand the purpose of a ritual we must know the four grades of difficulties.

Grade 0: There is no difficulty at all

Grade 1: The difficulty is under our control

Grade 2: The difficulty is not under our control but of constant magnitude

Grade 3: The difficulty is not under our control and its magnitude keeps varying continuously.

Rituals may enable to solve a difficulty, just reduce the grade of difficulty or enable us to tolerate it.

1. Rituals make us self-disciplined.

2. They reduce options and increase our focus of attention.

3. They reduce the grade of our difficulty and thus make it more manageable.

4. They unite people who perform rituals in the same way.

Since rituals make life rigid they divide people if they perform rituals in different ways.

1. They abolish reasoning and logic and thus make us irrational.

2. They take away flexibility and thus our freedom.

3. They take away creativity and make our life stereotyped.

4. Stereotyped life leads to boredom.

5. They enable us to imitate others and can't make us creative.

6. They may make life complicated and may create more problems than they solve.

7. Often they just enable us to tolerate a problem. Even if there is a simple direct solution to the problem it is not permitted.

Addendum:All rituals have a stabilizing influence on regular practitioners, not simply due to self-discipline. What I believe is not explicitly stated under advantages is that rituals provide a controlled event or occurrence (often in a group) at a regular interval. This provides a measure of observed certainty to the practitioners to allay uncertainty. Uncertainty is ubiquitous, especially when we consider non-linear aspects of life (weather, disease, personal attach-ments). So the stabilizing effect comes from a reduction of uncertainty and all the reactions to it (worry, fear, anxiety, panic, paranoia, etc.) The group dynamic enhances the effect.

The major disadvantage comes when group belief systems are erroneous. Uncertainty is reduced, thereby increasing certainty. Erroneous belief systems attached to rituals can lead to dogmatic practitioners and negative outcomes. Formal duelling (pistols) between opposing suitors may serve as a ritual for selecting a future mate for some damsel. However, the belief that the handgun-wielding expert is the "better man" for the woman may not support the best intimate relationship. But the ritual itself may increase certainty and improved sense of safety in the society which practices them as such.