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RELIGIOUS BRANDING
Thanks to successful religious branding, rituals and rites in Judaism, Islam and Christianity are well-known throughout the world. Some traditions like Christmas, have even been adopted by people who do not otherwise practice the religion. This is evidence of the toxic effects of religion.

While it can be said that rituals and traditions are accepted elements of all religions, God’s attitudes about them is not well understood. Religious people assume that God approves of rituals and traditions because they find evidence of such activities in the Bible. They further assume that God approves because of the historical practice of rituals and traditions. The thinking goes something like this: If God didn’t want his people to engage in rituals and traditions, he would have said so clearly in the Bible and/or he would have intervened in a way that would have shut down these activities.

Regarding what God has said in the Bible, he has said clearly that he does not approve of rituals and traditions.

Regarding God’s intervention in matters of which he does not approve, he does not intervene, and has never intervened when man chooses to sin. We only need to look at the story of Adam and Eve and all other Bible characters to see that, when people want to sin, God does not intervene.

And so, it is clear that religious rituals and traditions survive, not because God approves of them, but because God, in his wisdom, is waiting for an appropriate time to intervene in the hearts of men and write his laws on their hearts — one man/woman at at time. From that time forward, those men and women whose hearts have been transformed will worship God in spirit and truth — not through religious rituals and traditions.