Superstition and Religion
Superstition is that certainty that we live in a world beyond our comprehension and beyond our control. That is how it should be, anyway, if words are used correctly.
The advantage in starting a thread is that you can frame the proposition by inventing your own definitions. I don't consider you definition of supersition to be valid.
"The certainty that we live in a world beyond our comprehension and beyond our control" defines science and technology, not superstition. I would think that all scientists to a man and woman accept that they live in a world partially at least beyond their comprehension and control. It's an appropriate non-arrogant attitude to face when confronting the vastness of our ignorance and what we don't know relative to what we can even theoretically know. Conversely, the witchdoctor who rattles a bone over our ill body surely believes that his world in comprehensable and controllable.
What superstition really is a belief that events are caused by non-causal behaviors. Wikpedia has some examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition
"When a Dayak village goes out to hunt wild pigs in the jungle, the people who stay at home may not touch oil or water with their hands during the absence of their friend; for if they did so, the hunters would all be "butter-fingered" and the prey would slip through their hands.
"While a Gilyek hunter was pursuing game in the forests of ancient China, his children at home were forbidden to make drawings on wood or in sand; they feared that if the children did so, the paths in the forest would become as perplexed as the lines in the drawings and that the hunter might lose his way and never return. "
The question is whether generally supersition as defined above relates to religion. The answer is that it need not. The number 13, horsehoes, back cats, and broken mirrors may indeed have roots in our pagan past, but theist and atheist alike embrace such supersititions today with alacrity.
The advantage in starting a thread is that you can frame the proposition by inventing your own definitions. I don't consider you definition of supersition to be valid.
"The certainty that we live in a world beyond our comprehension and beyond our control" defines science and technology, not superstition. I would think that all scientists to a man and woman accept that they live in a world partially at least beyond their comprehension and control. It's an appropriate non-arrogant attitude to face when confronting the vastness of our ignorance and what we don't know relative to what we can even theoretically know. Conversely, the witchdoctor who rattles a bone over our ill body surely believes that his world in comprehensable and controllable.
What superstition really is a belief that events are caused by non-causal behaviors. Wikpedia has some examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition
"When a Dayak village goes out to hunt wild pigs in the jungle, the people who stay at home may not touch oil or water with their hands during the absence of their friend; for if they did so, the hunters would all be "butter-fingered" and the prey would slip through their hands.
"While a Gilyek hunter was pursuing game in the forests of ancient China, his children at home were forbidden to make drawings on wood or in sand; they feared that if the children did so, the paths in the forest would become as perplexed as the lines in the drawings and that the hunter might lose his way and never return. "
The question is whether generally supersition as defined above relates to religion. The answer is that it need not. The number 13, horsehoes, back cats, and broken mirrors may indeed have roots in our pagan past, but theist and atheist alike embrace such supersititions today with alacrity.
Labels: superstition
posted by My Mall & News at
5:08 PM
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