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Superstition

Entry 640, on 2007-11-13 at 21:39:58 (Rating 4, News)

When I point out how I think superstition is a negative force in the world I often have people who defend religious, paranormal and superstitious beliefs ask me what is the harm in people believing whatever they want to. Its a good question because even if we accept a certain belief is false (such as Christianity for example) that doesn't mean that believing it doesn't have some benefits regardless of its factuality.

The problem with fake and illogical beliefs is that the people who believe in the relatively innocuous version of these things - such as believing the (alleged) teaching of Jesus but rejecting creationism - provide a platform of acceptability that the more uncompromising groups - for example those who want creationism taught in science class - can build on. My arguments against fundamentalist religion are often made less effective by the argument that "you are arguing against a tiny minority, most Christians don't believe that extreme stuff". I don't know if that's true, because once I get the moderates to tell me what they really believe its often almost as bad as the fundies!

I embarked on this discussion because of a rather nasty incident related to superstition which recently occurred here in New Zealand. A young Maori woman died when her extended family tried to lift a curse by drowning her in water. She had scratches on her arms and body which showed she must have struggled against the attack. The family members responsible contacted the police but only 9 hours after the death (maybe they thought further application of superstitious rites might restore her to life).

Maori customs and legends (as well as those of many other groups) are often quite interesting and a charming change from the reality of everyday life. But by half pretending they are true (few people would be politically incorrect enough to label them superstition) we open the way for the more out of touch members of society to take them seriously with disastrous results.

Of course this stuff isn't limited to traditional indigenous beliefs. There are many people who take Christian exorcisms seriously and there are many documented cases of people dying or being horribly tortured as a result. Maybe if we all laughed at people who still belief in nonsense like demons they might get the message and back away from taking the idea seriously. It seems to me that by not deriding superstition we are giving tacit approval to that sort of belief, so we are all responsible for these deaths in some way.

Well, not all of us. I ridicule people with superstitious beliefs and they often get a bit upset because they are just not used to it. Its OK to be tolerant and respectful of other people's beliefs to some extent but sometimes beliefs are just so absurd that laughing at them is the best solution. If more people had my attitude the world might not be such a deeply ignorant and superstitious place.

Comment 1 (977) by Jim Cable on 2007-11-14 at 08:56:10:

I take the view that people can choose to believe whatever they will, but should be open to consideration of contrasting points of view. A subscription to Christianity (and indeed some other religions) for example, has kept many who might have been corrupted (fallen by the wayside) on the straight and narrow, and demonstrably used to keep our society as a whole better behaved than is the case today when the same teachings are far less evident. To me the message imparted stands as more important than the spiritual side of the belief (upon which the churches once all capitalised) because "love thy neighbour" and "do unto others" are foundation elements of a safe society that is considerate of its lesserly fortunate members.

On the other hand, superstition is something that stems from the primitive understanding- having little structure to it except the control of those who exercise it (a similarity with the medieval church) which in many cases can be debunked by science or demonstration.

If beliefs convey comfort to the individual believer - what's wrong with that?

Comment 2 (978) by OJB on 2007-11-14 at 10:13:43:

Obviously people should have the right to believe silly things if they want to, but it should be acceptable to point out the inconsistencies, falsehoods, and dangers in these beliefs. The problem I have is that it is often not socially or politically acceptable to criticise religious and traditional superstitious beliefs which can lead to people taking them too seriously and then to serious consequences, such as those in this case.

Also, if you just concentrate on the positive aspects of religion (love thy neighbour) and ignore the bad parts (kill anyone who believes in other gods) then you aren't getting an overview of the belief's true effects. Conveying comfort would be a positive. Disguising possible solutions to a problem by believing superstition would be a negative one. As in so many other cases its about balance.

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