Richard Norman on practice, ritual and belief:
Of course it's true that a religious community is not a debating society, and a religious service, with its prayers and hymns and rituals, is not an academic seminar whose business is to assess and defend theories. But the key phrase in the passage [quoted by Richard - NG] from Cornwell is "only partly". The asserting of beliefs may not be the main preoccupation of religious activities, but it is still essential. Without the beliefs, the practices make no sense. Prayer is meaningless without a belief of some kind, however vague, that there is someone, a person, who is being addressed. Hymns of praise and adoration are meaningless without some kind of belief in a deity who is worthy of adoration. And there is accordingly no evading the question of whether these beliefs are true. When I listen to, and am emotionally overwhelmed by, a performance of Bach's B Minor Mass, I am presumably experiencing something different from a devout Catholic attending Mass. And the difference must surely lie in the beliefs.
A point which this blog has been at some pains to emphasize. (Thanks: E.)