This Sort Of Devotion Bewilders Me.

[Canary42]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-46805783

It's rather like the Muslims to Mecca scenario. How can intelligent people believe in such fairytale rubbish ?

[Baldric]

Madness, but each to their own.

[Mamyalynne]

Such huge crowds are fearful to me.

On the broader topic, it's never easy to understand how someone else feels,thinks or believes if you don't share that faith.

[Jackdaw33]

If you are in Paris on 14th August (Feast of the Assumption) you will see a similar procession of a statue of the BVM from Notre Dame cathedral, albeit without the huge crowds.

[nailit]

I despair...

[Mamyalynne]

Take heart now.

[Khandro]

//How can intelligent people believe in such fairytale rubbish ?//

You really ought to ask them. I think it has enormous significance in their everyday lives, do you have anything as equivalent?

[vulcan42]

"You really ought to ask them. I think it has enormous significance in their everyday lives, do you have anything as equivalent?"

I don't need an equivalent significance in my life, I don't need to live a life of, as described in the article, a state of serene chaos.

[naomi24]

//do you have anything as equivalent? //

Why makes you think I want the equivalent? I don't. I think they're all potty.

[Old_Geezer]

Well... you gotta find some fun in life. After all, Xmas is weeks back now.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I'm OK with people believing in fairy tales, and especially so if those beliefs provide comfort and consolation when life is tough - which it is for all of us some of the time, but for many, especially in the third world, most of the time.

I don't want these people, though, insisting that I share their delusion.

[Mamyalynne]

I think Canary is simply saying, look - here is something I don't understand and that's fine.

Following that line of thought I could start twenty threads a day.

[JimF]

Absolutely! Personally, I can't understand how anyone could ever vote Tory. Or not like The Beatles.

But I've met some!

[vetuste_ennemi]

A more sophisticated question might be "what is the explanation of the (near universal) religious instinct and the formal rites which accompany it?".

Followed by "is the ritualistic behaviour symbolic of some moral, spiritual or psychological truth about ourselves?".

[sanmac]

In a way, the scenes pictured are quite similar to the crowds that you see getting all excited about an important football match.

[vetuste_ennemi]

...not a matter of life or death then. More important than that.

[Khandro]

vulcan; // I don't need to live a life of, as described in the article, a state of serene chaos.//

Given a choice between serene chaos and the bleak nihilism expounded regularly on AB, I'll take the serene chaos anytime.

As Nietzsche said, " One must have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star." :0)

[MallyJ]

I assume that you have no religious belief and thus manage to avoid xmas, easter etc. Well done you! Personally I will trot along with traditions and customs as they are fun...!

[mibn2cweus]

Rationality is the choice of those who have first learned to reason.

[vulcan42]

Khandro, Nietzsche also said "All truly great thoughts are created by walking", I wonder what Stephen Hawking thought about that. :o)

[ludwig]

As long as people don't demand that I respect their beliefs like they do and follow their self-imposed rules, I generally don't have a problem with it.