Romanian nun dies during torturelike excorcism

[Graeme Dice]

In fact most of the customs of pre-christian origin are more tolerant and aimed towards people and their well being than the christian ones are.

I wasn't aware that trial by ordeal was a custom aimed at people's well-being. But I guess that since it's a pre-christian germanic custom that it must be better than what we have now.

[Darth Wong]

There are a lot of valuable ancient customs and traditions that deserve being preserved.

Why?

Cultural and national identity ring any bells?

No, they don't. Give an actual reason why any traditions should be preserved even if they make no sense (and in many cases are actually harmful).

[Comosicus]

Why?

Cultural and national identity ring any bells?

No, they don't. Give an actual reason why any traditions should be preserved even if they make no sense (and in many cases are actually harmful).

Let me clarify my point a bit. The things I consider worthy to be preserved refered to traditional clothing, customs, songs, dances, as I explained to Morilore. These things started before the Middle Ages and are a very important part in the national identity of the Romanian people. And these have nothing to do with behaviors like the one that is discussed in this thread.

[SVPD]

[quote="Darth Wong']No, they don't. Give an actual reason why any traditions should be preserved even if they make no sense (and in many cases are actually harmful).[/quote]

How about for the entertainment and social values? (Assuming we are talking about otherwise harmless traditions)

[Morilore]

By teaching them to the children, by festivals, by dedicated TV shows, by documentary films (like those on National Geographic or Discovery Channell). When you have a folkloric culture 2000 years old, you can just let it vanish. It is for the same reason UNESCO has programs for languages threatened by disparition and other stuff like that. The "melting pot" might be the future, but now it is more like a blender and I think it is too early to cut the roots and let them die.

I won't go further on this subject here, because it might turn into a thread hijack.

Oh, good, you're not advocating enforced isolation. I was kind of afraid that you would go "keep away all outside influence" which is a creed of the fundamentalist and would not end well.

[Morilore]

Let me clarify my point a bit. The things I consider worthy to be preserved refered to traditional clothing, customs, songs, dances, as I explained to Morilore. These things started before the Middle Ages and are a very important part in the national identity of the Romanian people. And these have nothing to do with behaviors like the one that is discussed in this thread.

Um... you didn't answer his question.

You don't want to do that.

[Comosicus]

Why?

Cultural and national identity ring any bells?

No, they don't. Give an actual reason why any traditions should be preserved even if they make no sense (and in many cases are actually harmful).

It seems I didn't really answer your question in my last post, as Morilore pointed out. Actually I was merely trying to clarify the things I was really talking about.

Now, regarding your question ... Asuming these traditions and customs are not harmfull (I am excluding barbaric and fanatic behaviours), I think they deserve being preserved for their artistic, cultural and social value. In my opinion, cultural identity is very important, especially given the accelerated cosmopolitic tendencies that that have appeared in Romania after '89.

[Justforfun000]

Just to try and offset any possible flaming of Comosicus, (since I don't think what you are trying to say is coming across ideally), let me sum up an example.

I think he's saying lets keep things like Ireland & their kissing the blarney stone for luck and the cute pictures of Leprechauns as an identifying characteristic for festivals and such, or the Dutch being associated with windmills and wooden shoes, etc.

Not to the extreme that people have to LIVE like this anymore as a serious thing, just a celebration of identifying characteristics and stereotypes that defined these people and countries over the years.

By all means all traditions that are harmful and/or shameful should be evaluated as such by modern standards of sensible morality (ergo: humanistic ideals, NOT religious), and thereby discarded as things to be forgotten.

But harmless or beneficial traditions should be at least potentially kept to be celebrated but NOT enforced as laws of the land.

Is that where you were essentially going with that?

[Comosicus]

*snip*

You got it exactly. Thank you.