Prayer
Stark and Finke use prayer as an example of a healthy religious practice. They point to a study that suggests prayer "has very powerful positive effects on life satisfaction and on overall happiness, as well as on marital happiness." In this way, prayer symbolizes the fact that religious habits should not be dismissed in the name of social science, as they have been previously.
Religious symbols
Stark and Finke take a look at the role of religion in society across history. They suggest how things have changed in society, saying that "public life is no longer suffused with religious symbols." In earlier times, religious symbols such as the cross were more prominent and common in everyday life.
The value of religion
Stark and Finke resist the idea that as a society becomes more developed and advanced, religion no longer has a place. However, the authors show that religious faith is not diminished by modernization and that religion has a place in the modern world.
The Enlightenment
The Englightenment era supposedly symbolizes the triumph of science above all else. This being said, Stark and Finke show how the scientific resistance against religion was flawed in many ways.
Symbolic Rituals
Stark and Finke look at the works of Sperber, arguing against his assertion that religious rituals are necessarily symbolic.
According to the authors, Sperber argues that "it is so obvious that supernatural beings do not exist that even the rudest tribal priests must realize this fact and that they therefore cannot really be attempting to exchange with the gods. Instead, according to Stark and Finke, they must "accept the reality of what is being symbolized by various rituals."
