Well, the part about Feynman was all quoted from the Wikipedia entry on Cargo cults, but it may be worth taking a skeptical position - if briefly - for all beliefs and habits.
I love the illustration of how tradition can sometimes retain the wrong part of an action - like hoping for a cargo delivery because you're talking into a wooden box shaped like a walkie-talkie that has no electronics inside. You saw somebody get a cargo delivery by doing that, it worked once, so why shouldn't it work again.
I mean, religion, health, science ... sometimes the test is whether it's TRUE, sometimes it's whether it works, sometimes the test is whether it makes life better, sometimes there is no test.
But we shouldn't confuse things that are subjected to one kind of test, e.g., scientific truth, with things that have been subjected to a different test, e.g., bringing fulfilment into life like religion.
Maybe that's getting onto a different topic. Anyhow that's what I'm thinking about now!
