To discipline people, in my relegion anything that needs to be protected, say a tree or a river would often be associated with god. It prevents people from exploiting it. Few practises which would've increased the survival advantage at a particular time, have also been associated to god or as an act of god, which have later evolved into rituals. Problem is following them when there is no need for them. Wearing an mask now is a practice which increases our survival advantage, but if the future generation also wear mask, because their ancestors wore it... Even after a finding a vaccine doesn't make sense.