I was watching a film this morning that shared the title of this post and I heard an interesting statement which I thought I'd share:
"...like people everywhere (the Azmat) feel the need to understand the workings of the world. Grasping the ungraspable and taming the supernatural is a matter which falls into the realm of religion. This is a case study of how magic and religion play a crucial role in helping a jungle-bound people cope with eternal fears of existence...Like all people, the Azmat use religion and magic to deal with the forces that threaten them. Ritual, is the visible expression of religious thought and gives a sense of control over unpredictable events....Ritual gives one a sense of control over the supernatural, the sense of knowing the unknowable and changing the unchangeable."
This got me thinking about "Christian rituals." Do we perform our rituals to make ourselves feel as though we have some kind of control over the divine? Is there an underlying element of this in baptism? Communion? Sermons? Prayer? What do you think?
