“Another part of the answer is that rituals change the way we pay attention as much as — perhaps more than — they express belief.”
…
“Moreover, these rituals work, if by “work” we mean that they change people’s sense of their lives. It turns out that saying that you are grateful makes you feel grateful. Saying that you are thankful makes you feel thankful. To a world so familiar with the general unreliability of language, that may seem strange. But it is true.”
…
“Religion is fundamentally a practice that helps people to look at the world as it is and yet to experience it — to some extent, in some way — as it should be.”
— T. M. Luhrmann, “Religion Without God,” New York Times, 14 December 2014
Callan 