We long for end times, align against devils, and save ourselves through battles against infidels. Nothing generates solidarity like blood sacrifice in combat with outsiders. People realize their moral worth by sacrificing their own. The Last Temptation of Christ . Reason and Education Advances in scientific investigation and technology raise people above the state of terror that fostered religion.
Many women rebel against unpaid domesticity as religious adherence declines.
People enhance and lose their status by purging and bingeing on vice. They can join communities by renouncing signs of their outsider status. The Witches of Eastwick, Practical Magic . . . Individualism and Spiritual Drift People buy and sell icons that ground their rituals and so bring the spiritual into mundane daily life. Profit becomes its own reward for some, while earthly goods seem profane to others.