But I think beyond that they support and sustain us through times of weak belief, which I think we all have too, at times.
So now we are talking about rituals, perhaps, and their place in worship.
In the EO church, as you can imagine, this topic has been widely discussed and debated. :-)
I recall often a writing by Daniel Clendenin, an evangelical Protestant, I believe. He has extensively studied our faith and written about it, primarily in very positive ways. During his studies he met and talked with an Orthodox clergy member who admitted to a time period of loss of faith, which was transient. Because he was a priest, he was required to "go through the motions" at church, in spite of his personal crisis. The priest claimed that it was exactly this requirement of having to serve our liturgy which then returned him to his faith.
In the EO church it is often said that the "externals" as we call them, protray our inner spiritual life. So you will see, for example, a discussion on Putin ( who is Orthodox) in which Russian clergy will say that his behavior in church is very natural and spontaneous, and by this they mean to say that he is genuinely a believer.
I have discussed this at church regarding my teen agers, who now often are too self-conscious to get down on the floor and do prostrations in front of everyone. My feeling is that they need to do this anyway, because it not only represents their feelings of unworthiness in front of God, but because it assists these feelings to take shape and be in the forefront of life.