LETTER: Religious beliefs influence shared meanings

In the article "Actions more important than beliefs” (Nov. 11), is Ms. Steinmetz saying that religions are more properly considered to be merely mental concepts (“mechanical beliefs”)? That somehow religions encourage us to behave in a manner that must be obvious, whether its effects are either “practical tangible results” or “an excuse to hate or exclude”? Such a concept would lead to perceiving that the persecution and death of Jesus Christ had no immediate practical and tangible results (that the average person could acknowledge), and so therefore his death had no universal meaning.