Reality v. Suspension of Disbelief

Theater and movies involve (usually) willing suspension of disbelief.

No one thinks that the actor Robert Mitchum really was Harry Powell, the evil preacher and serial killer he portrayed in Night of the Hunter in 1955 (seen in the pic on the previous page). Later that same year audiences saw him as the unorthodox sheriff Clint Tollinger in Man With a Gun.

Religious ritual involves no such suspension. Things that happen in religious ritual "really" happen (at least for believers... and often the state).