How superstitious are people? (rituals, myth, spiritual, science, Atheism)

[Sunstone]

Are people more or less superstitious nowadays than they used to be? Or, overall, are people as superstitious as they have always been?

Despite the rise of science in the last 500 years, I personally see no evidence that people overall are any less superstitious today than they were during the middle ages. Am I right? Wrong? What do you think?

[Mr Spinkles]

I think you're right, Sunstone. Our society hasn't made much progress really...especially in certain parts of the world like Africa where black magic etc. is still practiced. India and Russia also have some problems with phony magicians and medicine men.

[anders]

To me, it seems that secularisation and atheism are on the increase. I interpret that as a sign that superstition is decreasing.

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

Perhaps superstition is a "fashion" thing. Nobody seems to worry about ladders or black cats or stepping on cracks (those that break your mother's back) in the sidewalk anymore. Anyone here think breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck? Anyone look for four-leaf clovers?

But baseball still has players with a "favorite" bat. There's "lucky" underwear for the lustful single. Statues of Buddha still get the tummy rubbed. Omens still figure in spiritual matters. There seems to be new "rituals" when two people say the same thing.

-pah-

[standing_on_one_foot]

Ah, we're still every bit as superstitious, just in different ways. The feeling with luck related stuff tends to be, "Well...maybe I believe in it and maybe I don't. But I'm not going to risk it by not doing [fill in the blank!]"...and then there's the urban myth...all sorts of stuff. It'll always be around, I figure.

[painted wolf]

superstions just go to show how faulty human perseption can be. I always pass my tests when I wear my striped underwear, they must be lucky.

everyone has at least one such superstition in them, deep down inside, eaven if they deny it

wa:do

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by painted wolf

everyone has at least one such superstition in them, deep down inside, eaven if they deny it

We are a superstitious species. I even think there might be a genetic cause for it -- that our superstitious nature is ultimately caused by something in our DNA. Superstitions are just too wide-spread, and too pervasive, for there not to be something about them that is basic to human nature.

I suppose that many superstitions are harmless, but when does a harmless superstition become dysfunctional? When it begins to interfere with one's life?

[standing_on_one_foot]

Well, not superstition in our DNA, per se, just a general feeling that we should be able to control the world, and things like...well, lucky underwear are, in a strange way, attempts to do that. And it's this desire to think that our lives are important enough that stuff would happen to us for a reason...and attempts to explain why things are the way they are...and always trying to see patterns, even when they aren't there...the list goes on.

[oisin3]

I think more women are superstitious than men. In Ireland, anyway.

[Ardhanariswar]

lol. my parents cut thier hair on special days. not on unlucky days. they bury thier nail clippings (or burn them) so random evil people wont use it for evil witchery.

dont sew at night. superstition? or bad for eyes? shoudl not clean the house when its night. religious symbols are good EVERYWHERE.

eek.

oh and, we cannot sleep facing south or west. we can only sleep towards north or east. god and goddess pictures should face west while we pray east towards the Rising Sun.

theres more.