If he were born today, Śankara would probably be what we now call a skeptic! Śankara’s firmest belief is in viveka, human capacity for discrimination. Despite going down rather harshly on ritual in Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, Śankara did understand the need for ritual. Children, after all, prop up fingers when asked to add two numbers. This ritual, of course, does not mean that addition is defined with respect to fingers. The goal of using fingers is to eventually outgrow the dependence on them. Śankara’s real grouse is against those refuse to grow out of this ‘finger counting approach’. He would not have written all the stotra kāvyas he did otherwise, would he?