Michael Norton

Doesn't have a functional purpose to clink your glasses.

All you're trying to do is in a sense, drink something out of a glass, but we do these rituals and you can, of course we see the benefit of it.

We're connecting, we're celebrating each other.

The words that we use often mean luck or health or good wishes to each other.

It's just liquid in a glass, but with ritual, we can turn it into something that's a little deeper.

And when you start thinking of your life like that, people say, you know what, I actually do, of course, have rituals that I engage in, that not only do I engage in them, but I actually like them, and I think that they're helpful.

I do think that there's something in us that really responds to ritual.

And we found the oddly named Seattle Atheist Church.

So if you think about atheist church don't usually go together very well, but what's the Seattle Atheist Church?

It's a group of people who gather together often in a church who enact many of the same behaviors.

For many people, religion is very important to them because it connects them with other people.

So by having a religious service, in a sense, you can connect with others.

The Seattle Atheist Church wanted to keep all of those good things about religious services.

They just happened to not want to include the part about God or a higher power.

I'm astounded if you look cross-culturally at how people greet each other, the variety in greeting is extremely wide.

Even if you think about do you kiss on the cheek or not?

Do you kiss on both cheeks or only on one cheek?

Do you shake hands?

Do you fist bump?

Do you high five?