"..But I had been born a unbeliever. I took no pleasure in religious ceremonies. They were too long, and the food came only at the end. I did not understand the language – it was as if our elders expected that our understanding would be instinctive – and no one explained the prayers or the rituals. One ceremony was like another. The images didn’t interest me; I never sought to learn their significance. With my lack of belief and distaste for ritual there also went a metaphysical incapacity, this again a betrayal of heredity, for my father’s appetite for Hindu speculation was great. So it happened that, though growing up in an orthodox family, I remained almost totally ignorant of Hinduism."
V. S Naipaul in "An Area of Darkness", a book he wrote as a result of a year spent in India, 1964
I share Naipauls dislike of ritual, but realize that many people feel totally differently, and should be respected for their predilections. But I went to a school where there was chapel every day and often lessons from the bible that made me think, “What on earth are they talking about?” It either kills you or cures you.