The assertion that millennials (and many of the rest of us) are less and less interested in participating in organized religion is fairly well established. But the point of Christine Emba’s Oct. 29 Tuesday Opinion essay, “What are millennials killing now? Churches.,” that “by leaving religion, we’re shrugging off the ‘ties that bind,’ ” is open to question.

Is belief in the supernatural really necessary to have a coherent community? Can people never have meaningful commonalities or flourish as a group without believing in some sort of conjectural divine being or overarching prime mover? Or is it just possible that people can find meaning as a rational, caring community without the superstitious trappings that accompany most religions? It appears we are on our way to finding out, and many of us are convinced that religion is not the only way to “tend to our spirits.”

David Williams, Silver Spring