I know not all praying religions have their adherents join their hands, but I think it’s the case for most. Many cultures even use clasped hands in day-to-day life as a sign of deference or pleading (which I guess makes them “social prayers”).
My only ‘armchair anthropologist’ theory is that hands that are gripped together are unable to present a threat to you, so it is a signal of voluntary vulnerability. But that doesn’t make sense in a religious context (although it does in the social context), because how would you ever be a threat to any god in the first place? 🤔 If anything, you’re displaying arrogance by saying to god “yeah I COULD fuck you up, but just for this conversation, I’m gonna decommission my arms, arms which I have to register as deadly weapons by the way”.
A secondary question on this topic is what is the function of praying hands in the praying process? If you say a prayer without joining your hands, does it not reach god? Or does he hear it but he’s like “uhhh, excuse me?? Forgetting something? No childhood leukaemia cure for you, I guess!” like an overly-pedantic lawyer?
Third question: Do any holy books actually describe or prescribe ‘praying hands’? If so, what do they have to say about it?
Cheers! 🙏
Also TVs back then were pretty small and fuzzy compared to today, so bad makeup and special effects looked better
And actions/motions needed to be exaggerated to fully come across.
Shatner is also pretty clearly using stage acting techniques instead of screen acting techniques in much of the show, screen acting as a distinct skill still being rather new at the time. You can also see Nimoy using much more modern feeling acting and Kelley using something in between.