Those rituals are a demonstration of the human stupidity enhanced by religion. All of then without exception. What about the Circumcision Ceremony, genital mutilation (Somalia and other African countries), self flagellation in the Philippines and so on. There are others more ridiculous than tragic. This is Religion.
"What about the Circumcision Ceremony, genital mutilation (Somalia and other African countries), self flagellation in the Philippines and so on." - William
I am amused that American Conservative Christians are rewriting the bible so that "thou shalt not kill" becomes "thou shalt not commit murder", thereby giving them the God given right to murder for their Gawad and Cuntry.
Oh, God licensed murder all right in the Bible, in spite of his own commandments. Just read the books dealing with the conquering of the promised land (mainly Joshua I think, I don't have a Bible at hand right now)
There is a difference between the Hebrew word "laharog" (to kill) and "lirtsoach" (to murder). The commandment in the 10 Commandments is "lo tirtsach", that is, "Thou shalt commit no murder" (as it is in the 1662 Anglican liturgy). The difference is the same as in English: murder is killing that is unjustified and illegal (by definition!).
Obviously, killing in self defense is not murder. Killing enemy soldiers is also not considered murder, although if your side is waging an unjust war, then the killing could be considered murder.
One can of course argue that certain things supposedly commanded by God in the Bible were unjustified killing, such as clearing Palestine of Canaanites as you mention.
May be these rituals were taught by more advanced alien civilisations and initially had a benefit but over time this was corrupted and lost in translation. thus circumcision (apparently reduces risk of STDs), Deuteronomy and the kosher food codes before refrigeration and preservation was advanced.
The hazing aspect is a rite of passage, group membership, the guilt of transgression to control.
More likely rituals were invented by the ruling elete to control the masses, as you say, some were benificial such as the kosher food codes before refrigeration and preservation was advanced.
Back in the day religious initiation induced a near death experience in order for the initiate to be "cleansed/baptized" and reborn into a new way of thinking, being, and living. Fraternity rituals and military training repeat this death and resurrection experience (experience, not just talk).
Home's Odyssey is a wisdom journey to "home." That is, he experience wandering, he becomes the captive of a murderous being, he goes to the land of the dead, he finally wakes up on a beach to a young woman's laughter, a great scene encapsulating his return to the land of normality and reality. He has died, he is resurrected, now he can go home and make things right.
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Several others have already mentioned the hazing aspect of religious brainwashing.
I'd like to draw attention to the dysfunctional nature of ritual behavior as demonstrated in other animals.
"The conditioning process is usually obvious. The bird happens to be executing some response as the hopper appears; as a result it tends to repeat this response."
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/
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