I’m going to ruminate on one aspect that you mentioned in your post—praying.
The rational person would claim that praying has no measurable effect on outcomes when controlled for the placebo effect, and so there is no causality there. So why bother?
The spiritual person would reply that one cannot know for sure that that isn’t the case, and in any case praying (hopefully) takes up a relatively small amount of resources anyway, so why not? (a-la Pascal’s wager)
I feel that it is reasonable for a person to attempt to reach out to any possible means of trying to control a situation that they feel powerless to be in. When faced with massive uncertainty and massive consequences, psychological safety is definitely valuable. Some may find this safety through refining their mental map of the situation and trying to think their way out, others may find this safety through feeling a connection to some perceived / believed higher power.
I’m going to ruminate on one aspect that you mentioned in your post—praying.
The rational person would claim that praying has no measurable effect on outcomes when controlled for the placebo effect, and so there is no causality there. So why bother?
The spiritual person would reply that one cannot know for sure that that isn’t the case, and in any case praying (hopefully) takes up a relatively small amount of resources anyway, so why not? (a-la Pascal’s wager)
I feel that it is reasonable for a person to attempt to reach out to any possible means of trying to control a situation that they feel powerless to be in. When faced with massive uncertainty and massive consequences, psychological safety is definitely valuable. Some may find this safety through refining their mental map of the situation and trying to think their way out, others may find this safety through feeling a connection to some perceived / believed higher power.