Spirituality for Sell

The question of Religious objects for sell was one of the things that brought me to this forum . Why do these things sell ? Throughout the ages there has been a market for anything and everything that may have the lest bit of Spirituality attached to it . From pieces of the Cross , Holy rocks , reteats , readings of the future , star charts , life sized glow in the dark posters of Jesus , and even a piece of ten year old toast with the image of the Virgin on it .

Do any of these things serve any use ? Good or bad ? { other then lossing your money and the fact that some Religions say not to worship idols } . What are your opinions on them ?

It guess the magnitude could be an issue of debate but people like to attach symbolic signifigance to objects and those objects have some cost to manufacturing them so part of it could be chalked up to that at a minimum.

The cheese and others that are unique and sometimes artifacts. Part of the perks of being in a free market economy is within reason and wide bounderies you cannot be told what to buy or sell and I would be uncomfortable if religion was one day subject to stricter or narrower rules of operation. If a person buys a cross it it brings them comfort I say that is good. I would confess it would do nothing for me but would never think that others should not have one based on its output to me.

As far as the marketablity of religion realize two things:

1) every product or service has a cost incurred to the provider and it least some monetary need is reasonable to accomodate that

2) the markets exist because of a need for the market.

I think that the need is enough justification for most of the market.

A similar arguement if you could make one would be what do purpose to logos serve in marketing and positioning of companies in an industry? The points you justify or reject this idea on I would think would be similar to the points of rejecting or justifying it in religion.

hehe especially things like the mary toast get so much money is that they are unique and people can show them off...but the thing is a piece of tost which looks like elvis would get just as much money. It is because people like to give non-human and inanimate objects human qualities.

But other religious paraphanalia is as robtex suggesting just cashing in on people's beliefs and they will always sell as people want to try to get closer to their religions

logos are very clever as yes they similarly aim to manipulate people into buying things, logos aim to target a spesific audience and help to get people to memorise brands and brand names and also hope to create a corporate identity...meh

Ok , I can understand wearing a Cross , or the Star of David , or what not . And I can understand the value of Holy Water , although I'm not sure what use most people would have for it . But something like this is going a little too far .... me thinks .

http://www.holywater.biz/

People collect for many reasons, and many of these are not religious.

I collect fossils. But I normally don't buy them, I dive for them.

Lol, people were selling their souls on ebay. Ebay went and made it so you can't anymore though.

My question isn't about collecting things . It has more to do with why do normal , intelligent people do so silly things when it comes to religion . For excample , I knew an older lady who once threw a Bible into a kitchen fire . Gotta love her Faith , but throwing paper onto a fire ??? And the water ? Does anyone who buys that stuff stop to think that they would have to be " mass blessing " it ? { if they even do that }

And that is nothing compared to " Hado " water . The brain child of a Dr. Masaru Emoto . http://www.wellnessgoods.com/messages.asp They are not only selling this water , but selling tickets to seminars to teach you how to talk to your water ....
http://www.soundenergy.net/japanwater.htm

Religious people like religious artifacts because it gives a tangible edge to their otherwise invisible faith.

Religious people like religious artifacts because it gives a tangible edge to their otherwise invisible faith.

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I agree with that, many people need physical objects, symbols and what not to have something to cling to or identify with that represents the forces or beliefs they follow that they could not begin to fathom otherwise or do not understand. IMO, that is exactly why so many god(s) goddesses, natural forces etc. throughout time have been envisioned in ways that are generally very humanlike in look, form, emotions etc. in other words, someone or something that can be understood, boxed and identified with. I feel that many people have an actual need to understand and make sense of everything even if it might be an invention of the mind.

This is not to say that symbols/symbolism are not useful, symbolism, (images or beliefs physical or envisioned that evoke strong emotions from individuals or groups of individuals) can be used to bring forth and channel these very same energies, the trick is directing these energies into a useable tool. The power of these symbols are not ultimately inherent in the symbol itself but in the power the individual attributes to it and the energies they allow themselves to produce by that belief or attribution- it really comes down to the individual. I feel this really is the basis of all religous "magick" no matter what the religion calls itself. When religious "Magick" seems successful no matter the belief system, through prayer, ritual, ceremony etc. is it truly a "supernatural" occurence (that is through the power of God(s) etc.) or a result of the individual or group channeling energies that they themselves have either tricked themselves into evoking from themselves or knowingly doing so and directing them to the desired result? If so religious "magick" reasonably has absolutely nothing to do with invisible outside forces but are aspects and powers inherent in our humanity itself that we do not fully understand yet, at least this is my take on it. ESP, Paranormal etc. is generally considered "of the devil" or "the devils tricks" by Judeo Christian belief systems and many others, but there are many pastors and believers that have had "visions" from god, swear that prayer works and have had "god" tell them what was going to happen- yet this is all holy.

And then again, some people just have enough money to spend on trinkets that please them without a second thought about the what's and why's.