Religion versus Superstition

Written by Claire

Is there any real connection between superstition and religion? Well, at first I thought that they are almost the same thing, even not the exactly the same, it’s not easy to tell the difference between the two. If you have the same question about the topic, well, think about the following situations first: A person can faithfully attend church services all their life without giving a second thought to a black cat walking in front of them. On the other hand, a person who completely rejects any religion whatsoever may consciously or unconsciously avoid walking under a ladder — even if there is no one on the ladder who might drop something.

Obviously, not everyone who is religious is also superstitious and not everyone who is superstitious is also religious.

Actually, they are different in some ways. Because the very label “superstition” seems to include a negative judgment of irrationality, childishness, or primitiveness, it is understandable of religious believers wouldn’t want their own faiths to be categorized with superstitions.

However, we must, nevertheless, acknowledge that the similarities are not superficial. For one thing, both superstition and traditional religions are non-materialistic in nature. They do not conceive of the world as a place controlled by sequences of cause and effect between matter and energy. Instead, they presume the added presence of immaterial forces which influence or control the course of our lives.
Furthermore, there is also the appearance of a desire to provide meaning and coherence to otherwise random and chaotic events. If we get hurt in an accident, it might be attributed to a black cat, to spilling salt, to failing to pay sufficient honor to our ancestors, to performing the appropriate sacrifices to the sprits, etc. There seems to be a genuine continuum between what we tend to call “superstition” and the ideas in animistic religions.

In both cases, people are expected to avoid certain actions and perform other actions in order to ensure that they do not fall victim to the unseen forces at work in our world. In both cases, the very idea that such unseen forces are at work seems to stem (at least in part) both from a desire to explain otherwise random events and from a desire to have some means of affecting those events.
These are all important psychological benefits often used to explain the reason why religion exists and why religion persists. They are also reasons for the existence and persistence of superstition. It seems reasonable to argue, then, that while superstition may not be a form of religion, it does spring from some of the same basic human needs and desires as religion does. Thus, a greater understanding of how and why superstition develops can be useful in gaining a better understanding and appreciation of religion.

Related articles
http://fixed-point.org/index.php/blog/224-faithorsuperstition
http://schansblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/faith-and-superstition.html

Are Superstitions Harmful?

Witten by Riki

It is hard to define whether one superstition can harm people or not. If we search for stories about the incidents related to the superstitions, we can find a lot. For example, suppose we had a bad luck you on Friday thirteenth. If we are superstitious, we would think that was because it was the day. However, the bad luck maybe just a coincidence. No one can scientifically prove that bad things definitely will occur on that day. On the other hand, obsession with superstitions may affect our lives and could harm our health. According to Sarah Albert, the author of “The Psychology of Superstition” on Medicinenet.com, obsession toward unreasonable thoughts such as superstition may give us great anxiety and distress as the example of the character that Jack Nicholson’s acted in the film As Good as it Gets, who “skips cracks in the sidewalk” or always sits “at the same table in the same restaurant everyday.” Even a research by David Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California, showed that being superstitious can make people more anxious and stressed. Therefore, it is better not to believe superstitions too much.

Are superstitions helpful?
As I mentioned above, this is the matter of the degree we believe. Although there is no specific line that defines the level we believe superstitions and hard to say how deep we can believe superstitious, being superstitious may also have a function to ease our anxiety. There are so many things in life that we are not able to predict and some people have a great fear or worry toward those things: Am I going to pass an entrance exam for the school I really wish to go? What will happen if I tell him that I like him? Can I find my dream career? We have those small anxieties in our lives, and many of us try to calm the thoughts in superstitious manner. In Japanese culture, for instance, many people carry amulet as a charm, and in American culture, carrying a rabbit food is a lucky charm. Many sports players have some superstitious habits to let their anxiety go off. The well-known basketball player Michel Jordan would do up his shoelace in a certain manner before the game. Even the historical baseball player Babe Ruth would hit butterflies with the diamond because he believed they were bad luck. Even though being too superstitious can harm our health, being moderately superstitious may help us act more confidently rather than being nervous in big occasions.

References:

Albert, Sarah. “Is 'magical' thinking hurting or helping you?” MedicineNet.com. 4 Oct. 2004. 27 May. 2010. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46749

“Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).”MayoClinic.com. 19 Dec. 2008. 27 May. 2010. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/ds00189

“As Good as It Gets.”The Internet Movie Database. 1997. 27 May. 2010. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119822/

Somerville, Carole.“Belief in superstitions and its effect on our lives.” Helium. 27 May. 2010.
http://www.helium.com/items/1610568-how-does-superstition-affect-our-liveswhy-are-people-superstitiousaffects-of-superstious-behaviour

“Are you superstitious?”BeingGirl. 26Feb.2009. 27 May. 2010.
http://www.beinggirl.com/en_US/articledetail.jsp?ContentId=ART300

Yronwode, Catherine.“THE RABBIT FOOT.”Lucky Mojo. 27 May. 2010.
http://www.luckymojo.com/rabbitfoot.html

What is SUPERSTITION?

Written by Claire

Superstition is a credulous belief or notion, not based on reason, knowledge, or experience. The word is often used pejoratively to refer to folk beliefs deemed irrational. This leads to some superstitions being called "old wives' tales". It is also commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings, particularly the irrational belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events.

When you try to define the word superstition, don't you find that it is quite difficult to do so?
Suppose ,for example, you said it was a belief in something that wasn't really so.
Well there are many things all of us believe in that can't be proved. Besides,at certain times in man's history,everyone believed in certain things that we now regard as superstititions . And the people who believed in them at that time weren't superstitious at all. For example, they believed that the shadow or reflections of a person was a part of soul.So they considered that you would harm the soul,if you broke anything on which this shadow or reflection appeared . Therefore they considered it harmful unlucky to break mirror. But remember at that time this was a belief held by most people. Today if someone considers it unlucky to break a mirror he is superstitious.Today we no longer believe that a shadow or reflection is a part of the soul.

So a superstition is actually a belief or practice that people cling to after new knowledge or facts have appeared to disprove them . That's why it is impossible to say when superstition began. In ancient times man tried to explain events in the world as best as he could with the knowledge at hand. He did not know much about the sun, stars,moon,comets and so on, So people made up explanations about them and followed certain practice to protect themselves from their influence.That is why astrology was an accepted belief at one time. But with the development of science,the heavenly bodies comes to be known and understood, the old beliefs should have died out. When they didn't and when people still believed that ,for example , that seeing an shotting star brought good luck,these beliefs became superstitions



reference: (Wikipedia)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition