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Ritual, The Husk of True Faith

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Tao Te Ching 38 When the Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is morality. When morality is lost, there is ritual. Ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos. Therefore the Master concerns himself with the depths and not the surface, with the fruit and not the flower. He has no will of his own. He dwells in reality, and lets all illusions go. Ritual is important in religion. It is important in life. Can we become so clever that we reject the rituals? Sure, we know that waters of baptism don’t actually clean someone physically from intangible sin. The person doesn’t really die and then come back to life. The bread and wine of sacrament are not flesh and blood. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, spilled his blood and died for our sins upon a wooden cross. He was a symbol of great sacrifice. Did God really have to do that physically? Isn’t it the same to just think about the symbol? Can’t we just talk about? We can be very logical and concrete. There is no