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| A Very Bad Sign for the Superstitious |
There are important psychological
benefits often used to explain the reason why religion exists and persists (see
post: Do We Really Need Religion?).
These are also the same reasons for the existence and persistence of
superstition. Both religion and superstition spring from some of the same
basic human needs and desires: a need for certainty, for security, some
reassurance that you will not be overcome by the evils of the world.
The similarities between religious and
superstitious beliefs are not just on the surface but run deep and often
intertwine. Both are non-materialistic in nature. They do not look at
the world as a place controlled by cause and effect but rather explain the
vicissitudes of existence by the presence of immaterial forces (God or
gods; angels or demons - see post: Devils and Demons) which influence or control the
course of life.
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| So Many Religious Beliefs |
As human beings, we crave meaning in our
lives. We are unable to easily accept that events may be random or chaotic. If
a friend gets struck by a car, was it because a black cat crossed his path? Or
was it because he did not go to church last Sunday? Does he not pay respect to
his ancestors?
Some have explained the difference
between religion and superstition this way: 'A religion is a
set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe,
especially when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency or
agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often
containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. Superstition,
on the other hand, is a 'credulous belief or notion, NOT based on
reason, knowledge, or experience. It is also commonly applied to beliefs and
practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings,
particularly the irrational belief that future events can be influenced or
foretold by specific unrelated prior events.
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| Angel from the Song of Bethlehem |
This is perhaps, not a very good defence
of 'religious' belief as opposed to 'superstitious' belief. The Hebrew Bible
(the Old Testament) contains many books focused on prophecy. In both
the Old and New Testaments as well as the Muslim Koran,
spiritual beings (angels, devils, demons) play important roles. The
weakness of these 'definitions' is bared forth by asking straight-forward
questions such as: Jesus changing water into wine or Mohammed flying
to heaven on Al-Burāq, the 'mythological' winged horse...Is it
reasonable to believe that either of these two 'events' are true?
The definition of 'superstition' has
changed with the times and changes depending upon whom you ask. Generally, superstition is
a belief in 'supernatural causality', the belief that one event leads to
the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two
events. Such as God striking you down because you 'sinned'?
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| Al-Burāq |
Opposition to superstition was a concern
of the intellectuals during the 18th century when philosophers ridiculed
any belief in miracles, revelation or 'magic' and typically included as
well much of Christian doctrine.
During the time of the Roman Empire, superstition simply meant a fear of the gods.
Martin Luther, one of the first of the 'Protestants' called
the papacy and the Roman Church 'that fountain and source of all
superstitions'.
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| Martin Luther |
Today, according to the Roman
Catholic Church, 'superstition is a deviation of religious feeling and of the
practices this feeling imposes'.
It seems that the term superstition contrasts
with the term religion, simply by focusing on what is seen (by the
religion in question) as excessive or false religious behavior as opposed to
a standard of proper or accepted religious activity.
Are you afraid to walk under a ladder?
If you do, do you cross yourself or say 12 'hail Marys'? The following are
examples of (what most would call) 'superstitions':
Triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number
'13' is a specifically recognized phobia (a word which was coined in
1911). Sufferers of triskaidekaphobia try to avoid 'bad luck' by keeping away
from anything numbered or labelled 'thirteen'.
The number 'four' (四, sì)
in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures: Because the number '4'
sounds like the word 'death', '4' is considered an 'unlucky' number (see
post: Fun With Numbers).
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| The Goddess Fortuna |
Finding a 'four-leaf clover', a rarity
among clovers, is considered a sign of 'good fortune' to come.
Numerology is a modern day practice
that is based on converting virtually anything material into a number,
using that number in an attempt to detect something meaningful about reality,
and trying to predict or calculate the future based on 'lucky' numbers (see
post: Gematria Fun With
Numbers Again).
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| A Four-Leaf Clover |
In some European countries,
spilling salt is a sign of evil things to come. One explanation
of this belief is that Judas Iscariot spilled the salt at
the Last Supper but salt was a valuable commodity in medieval
times and a symbol of trust and friendship. There is an old German saying:
'Whoever spills salt arouses enmity'.
There is an old concept in folklore (superstition?)
the seventh son of a seventh son possesses special powers. The
seventh son must come from an unbroken line with no female children born
between, and be, in turn, born to such a seventh son. This number '7' (see
post: Fun With Numbers) has a long
history of mystical as well as religious associations: the seven days
of creation, the seven hills of Rome, the Seven Sages (see
post: Seven Sages and Four
Horsemen). In some cultures, the seventh son of a seventh son is believed
to have a direct link to Satan and because of
this, possesses 'special abilities'.
_-_The_Last_Supper_(1495-1498).jpg) |
| Judas Spilling the Salt at the Last Supper (Da Vinci) |
A curse (or execration)
is an expressed wish that some form of misfortune will occur to someone or
to something. The 'curse' may be inflicted through 'casting a spell', magic,
'witchcraft', act of God or by a prayer. It is at this point that the defining
lines between superstition and religion start to blur for many religious and
non-religious people alike. Often, the curse itself (or accompanying ritual)
is considered to have some causative force in the result. There is a broad
popular belief in curses being associated with the violation of the tombs of
mummified corpses of ancient Egypt.
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| Egyptian Hieroglyphic Curse Inscription |
So, is this where the line of
demarcation between superstition and religion is? The following are
examples of (what most would call) 'religious practices' but, depending on
your religion, some may disagree:
Satī was (and still is) a religious
funeral practice among some communities in India where a recently
widowed woman commits suicide by throwing herself onto her husband’s
funeral pyre.
Prayer is an act that seeks to
activate a relationship with a deity or object of worship through deliberate
communication. Prayer may involve the use of words or song or simply
words from the praying person. Several scientific studies regarding prayer and
its effect on the healing of sick or injured people have been carried out,
mostly with equivocal results.
The most common form of prayer is to
directly appeal to God to grant one's requests. God supposedly listens to the
prayer, and may or may not choose to answer in the way one asks of him.
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| Sati Ceremony |
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| Military Chaplain-Anointing of the Sick |
The Qiblah is the direction
that should be faced when a Muslim prays.
It is fixed as the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. Most mosques contain a niche
in the wall (called the mihrab), that indicates the correct direction in
which to pray (the Qiblah).
The Qiblah's importance also plays a part
in various ceremonies. For instance, the head of an animal that is
slaughtered using Halal (religiously sanctioned) methods is aligned
with the Qiblah. After death, Muslims are buried with their heads in the
direction of the Qiblah.
The Kaaba is a cube-shaped
building in Mecca and is the most sacred site in
Islam. The Kaaba was said to have been constructed by
Abraham and his son Ishmael, after settling in Arabia.
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| The Kabaa, Mecca |
The Black Stone is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba. The stone was venerated at the Kaaba in pre-Islamic pagan times and now is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic. It was set intact into the Kaaba's wall by Muhammad in 605 A.D. Since then it has been broken into a number of fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba.
The stone is a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of millions of pilgrims. Islamic tradition states that it fell from Heaven to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar and has often been described as a meteorite.
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| Exorcism |
The sign of the cross or crossing oneself, is a ritual hand motion made by members of many branches of Christianity. The motion is the tracing of the shape of a cross in the air or on one's own body, echoing the traditional shape of the cross upon which Christ was crucified. There are two principal forms: the older—three fingers, right to left—is exclusively used in the Eastern Orthodox Churches; the other—left to right, other than three fingers—is the one used in the Latin-Rite (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran).
Exorcism is the religious practice
of evicting demons (see post: Devils and Demons) or other spiritual
entities from a person or place which they are believed to have 'possessed'
(see post: Execution by Crucifixion). Depending
on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be done by performing
an elaborate ritual, or simply by commanding it to depart in the name of a
higher power. The practice is ancient and part of the belief system of many
cultures and religions.
All this brings us back to the
same question(s) once again: Jesus changing water into wine or Mohammed flying
to heaven on Al-Burāq, the 'mythological' winged horse...Is it
reasonable to believe that either of these two 'events' are true?
Today, many would say that both of these
tales are merely metaphors, storied descriptions of the influence these two men
of history had on the world. But, when these stories were first told and even
only a few hundred years ago, these tales were taken as real, as 'gospel'
truth. Does that mean that Christianity and Islam were superstitions at that
time and only now are true religions?
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| Christ Walking on Water |
And what will be said about today's
beliefs in another two or three hundred years? Will the religious of the
future claim that today's stories of popes and ayatollahs, of missionaries and
dedicated nuns are really just metaphors too?
Will they also say that the beliefs that
many follow today are 'superstition' which eventually (some time in today's
future) became true religion?
*Superstition and religion: subjects of research for the novel The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.
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