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Superstition

A term designating beliefs or practices that result from ignorance or a fear of the unknown. These beliefs and activities also may be caused an irrational abject attitude toward the supernatural and God. Such an attitude may lead to a belief in magic, chance or the false concept of causation. Such individuals seem hopelessly resigned to their beliefs and practices. They believe certain events occur or can be made to occur if and when others things happen; when in objective reality there seems to be no causal-effect relationship between the occurrence of both events, and there is almost no possibility that such a relationship would exist.

Some examples of superstition are the belief in the evil eye, and emblems of good luck charms such as the horseshoe and the four-leaf clover. Many forms of divination are considered superstitious by most industrialized cultures.

However, these beliefs still held by many. Such superstitious ideas persist notwithstanding the evidence which oppose their validity. Even today most people will not walk under a ladder, believing doing so will bring bad luck, but will walk around it.

Other superstitious beliefs may be seen at Superstition. A.G.H.

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