Convenient Belief

I came across the above clip while watching the show "Make it or Break it" and it really reminded me of the discussion we had in class about "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. I'm specifically referencing the section of the book when the Jack talks to the nun about believing. The nun tells Jack, "The others who spend thier lives believing that we belieeve...To abandon such beliefs completely, the human race would die. That is why we are here. A tiny minority. To embody old beliefs" (303). 

This relates to the "Make it or Break it" videos because when Payson, the blonde in the blue jacket, says "I know that Otis is a silly good luck charm but he's something to believe in". Both the video and the excerpt from "White Noise" are examples of how even though people know that their beliefs aren't real or true they still want to believe in them. They may not fully believe in religion or good luck but convincing themselves to believe in that is better than not believing. I think that this trait is uniquely American because in most other countries religion and superstition are not really in question and people fully believe in that, but in America religion is not as prevalent and most only choose to believe when they are in need, which is the case in both the video and the excerpt. Even though about 75% of Americans affiliate themselves with a branch of Christianity the average weekly church attendance has declined. This suggests that even though people affiliate with different religious groups they don't truly believe by attending church and keeping up with a consistent belief. It supports the idea that people only believe when they need to, which in my opinion, is truly American.

Why do you think that people only believe when they need it? What other themes can this trend be applied to?