I think, particularly when life is hard, having something to believe in that will take care of you is important, but I'm not religious, a sociologist or a theologist, so I can't say for sure; I'm sure there's information out there, though.

Possibly, but even then there're linguistic holdovers; if they're simply not religious any more then you have to know either why those phrases disappeared from common consciousness, or how they came to be in the first place, what they reference, and so forth.