For how many more generations must
we put up with superstition?
A superstition is an illogical
belief that an effect was created by a supernatural cause, or to put
it more plainly, it is a desire to believe in nonsense.
There is a very real reason for
superstition to exist, it is probably something that helped us
evolve, it also seems to be inherent in our being, although mostly
socially engineered. When we were primitive humans, huddled together
near our grassy plain, living in caves, (or whatever,) it made
perfect sense to be leery of rustling grasses, for we may soon be
eaten by a lion. Some have argued that those who were more
superstitious may have proven more likely to survive, for if you
simply ran away every time you heard the grass rustle, you will have
likely survived the odd hungry lion, for the multitude of times it
was the wind creating the sound. (Do cowards live longer than the
brave?) So then you would have taught your offspring to fear the
rustling grass as well, which in turn would keep your cautious genes
going, whereas the less cautious would have, at least part of the
time, gotten eaten by the hungry lion. So the inherent, evolutionary
fear crosses over into social engineering.
Moving forward in time now,
through the various societies, religions, institutions and ideas that
have prevailed, we discover that most superstitions are entirely
socially engineered and not at all based in reality, (although some
are.) Let us take a look at common modern superstitions, where they
came from and what we believe about them. (And let us not talk about
the biggest superstitions of them all, Gods and religions.)
Knocking on Wood: If you're not
familiar, the basics of he apparent phenomenon are as follows: If one
has the urgency to utter a proclamation with disdain for the
manifestation of the utterance, one has the opportunity to nullify it
by touching wood, especially when used in conjunction with the
proclamation, "touch wood." So our argument is that if we
touch wood and we say "touch wood," the thing we said just
previous will not come true. Our belief however is that we somehow
have both the magic power of conjuring what we say and the magic
power of taking such conjuring away, provided there is wood handy.
(I'm excluding the American version of this where one knocks on one's
head as if it were made of wood.) Some would argue that this is just
a social habit, a form of courtesy we offer as apology for saying
such dreadful things, but superstitious people are not actually
thinking about what they are doing, when the do such things, despite
our desire to wish no harm to anyone, (we hope.) Although it remains
unclear as to its origin but there seems to be a consensus that it
stems from pagan tree worshipers who would knock on trees, or
stumps, after taking some or all of the wood. This would allow the
souls of the trees to escape freely, rather than be trapped in the
remaining tree, or stump, which would keep evil spirits or other
mythical creatures from being attracted to the tree, hang around and
cause you bad luck.
Friday the 13th: There are
countless references going back centuries to the unlucky nature of
the number 13. Mathematically, 13 is an odd number, it's prime, it's
also a bit unusual if only because of the fact that, at least on
Earth, 12 is an extremely common
number. 24 hours in day, 12 months in year, roughly twelve weeks in a
season, we even sort our eggs and doughnuts in dozens. (How come
nobody considers a "baker's dozen" (13) to be unlucky?) But
nobody is talking about the unlucky nature, (in literature, history
or otherwise,) of the number 13 until after the popularization of the
Christ tale. (So it is, at the least, a superstition of a
superstition.) The fact that it was attached to the idea that Friday
is unlucky, (Christ was crucified on a Friday, sailors didn't want to
depart at the end of the week, preferring to start journeys at the
beginning,) is probably just the compounding of unlucky concepts into
a superstitious double-whammy. When you take into account that the
unlucky day tends to be cultural, (Greeks and the Spanish think
Tuesday is unlucky, because Constantinople fell twice on a Tuesday,
to two different empires,) it's easy to see how the unluckiness of
the date is arbitrarily attached to a day when something bad happened
to you or your people, a long time ago. For instance, on
Friday the 13 of October 1307, King Philip IV of France had every
member of the Knights Templar arrested on charges of heresy. It
mattered then, to them, it doesn't now, to you. Today,
Friday the 13th is the safest day to travel, because people who
believe in such things stay at home. This makes it, at least in terms
of traffic accidents, a luckier day than average.
Lucky charms:
No, not the cereal, but things like a rabbit's foot, or perhaps a
charm you wear around your neck, maybe of your favorite saint.
These things have been around as long as charms have. Perhaps even
primitive human's would wear a string of lion's teeth around their
neck to communicate to the universe this or that belief. We know the
ancient Egyptians would wear and provide to their livestock, amulets
of Ra, or Isis, in the hopes of drawing out the luck of such deities,
rather than suffer their wrath. Historically, such charms have a
fairly precise track record of working fifty percent of the time.
Saying "God
Bless you" when someone sneezes: This is one that I stopped
doing once I stopped being a child. Now when people sneeze I say
nothing. Sometimes, even in the time and place I live, I still get
slightly dirty, expectant looks, as if to say, "Well, aren't you
going to say God Bless you?" Instead I say, "Get much on
ya?" (Well, sometimes.) If I sneeze and someone offers "Bless
you," I'll usually just say nothing, maybe "thanks,"
but often I say, "I'm not sure you're qualified." Sneezes
are not caused by demons trying to escape my body. There's no need to
combat that demon by attempting to manifest the will of God. (Why
would you do that in the first place? Even if it was the middle
ages... I'm flattered that you think God has time to worry about my
allergies, but...)
There
are about a million more superstitions that are still commonplace, in
various forms around the world. They're usually completely harmless,
a habit we picked up from our parents, or like a fun bit of belief
that we feel increases the chances of things going our way. It's a
pretty rare occasion for people to suffer because of them, although
this does take place. Consider the compulsive gambler who honestly
believes he only wins when he wears his lucky shoes, then loses those
shoes. He is going to suffer because of his beliefs, but it's his own
damn fault. When one looks at most superstitions, they stem from some
ancient idea we had about the world that has since been proven to be
ridiculous, often from a socially engineered intention, usually due
to religion. (We need this idea in, this idea out, so let's get
people to think thus.) However, superstitions come from the same
place as ideas that we have abolished, for various relevant reasons,
such as: slavery, racism, sexism. Yes these things still exist, but
they are frowned upon and rightly so. Superstitions are certainly
less harmful that these counterproductive ideas, but they are made of
the same stuff. I'd like to continue thinking for myself and
communicate in the world without being embarrassed by what my fellow
humans continue to needlessly believe. There's still mystery in the
universe. I, for instance, believe in God, despite having no
particular proof of existence. (See my essay, "Existence doesn't
matter to God.") I don't believe in superstitions because we
have proof that they are useless in our time and place. There are
still many unknowns, you can still enjoy the mystery and you're
entitled to believe whatever nonsense you like, but you had best be
careful when your beliefs lead you to action. Believing in the
pointless is counterproductive. This, however, does not make the
concept of God any less of a superstition, it's just the ultimate
superstition, due to it pointing at the ultimate causality.
What
superstitions do you "use?" We can talk about them in the
comments below, if you like.
