And Speaking of Baptism
Following on the heels of Sunday's post on Baptism, I found the following at LiveScience.com

Rituals that cleanse the body to purify the soul are at the core of religions worldwide. Now scientists find these ceremonies apparently have a psychological basis.

Researchers discovered sins actually seem to urge people to clean themselves, a phenomenon they dubbed the "Macbeth effect" after dramatized murderess Lady Macbeth, who vainly tried scrubbing her hands clean of imaginary blood in Shakespeare's famed Scottish play....

Intriguingly, the researchers also found purifying the body then helped people absolve their consciences.

"Past studies have shown there are definite overlaps in the brain in the regions stimulated by moral disgust and physical disgust, the kind you get to potentially bad food or other things you'd evolve to want to avoid," she added.

This, of course, would speak to believer's baptism, but I have a hunch that the ritual itself of baptism or cleansing can have an impact throughout one's life. It may also explain why from time to time over the years people have wanted to be "re-baptized." Of course that goes against all theology, but it would explain the ritual baths and the baptism for forgiveness of sin that John the Baptizer practiced. We are aware of the need to have some kind of cleansing at those times when some sin or sinfulness has taken over our lives.