A few thoughts on why traditions matter, from an atheist and programming perspective.

There is a saying that traditions are solutions to problems that we have forgotten. Once traditions are removed, the problems they fixed come back.

Removing traditions can be likened to a programmer removing random lines and functions of code because he/she doesn't see what their purpose is.

The result is that the code starts malfunctioning, since the pieces of code that were removed had utility value that was forgotten.

Every programmer that returns to their own code 10 years later may delete or change vital parts of the code by mistake.

This is why programmers are reluctant to even fix a spelling error in a code that works, because downstream functions might reference that spelling as it is.

When we evaluate the value of culture and traditions that provide high degrees of social capital and societal cohesion, we must remember that they probably have a purpose, even if we don't understand it. Just as when we read code we wrote 10 years ago that we also don't fully understand.