Superstition

‘Superstition’ generally refers to excessively credulous belief, i.e. belief lacking criticality.
See: critical thought.
Here F. Bacon defines "the" reason for superstition: This is more or less the reason for all superstitions...such as men delight; they pay heed to those that come to pass but, on the contrary, when they are false – which happens much the more often – they neglect them and pass them over. [ Francis Bacon, «Novum Organum» 1620;1645, tr. Donaldson]
See, conversely: hyperstition.
Greek and Roman polytheists, who modeled their relations with the gods on political and social terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods, as a slave feared a cruel and capricious master. Such fear of the gods was what the Romans meant by "superstition" (Veyne 1987, p. 211).
== r ==
See also: pseudo-magical thinking.
* Superstitions of modernity.
* Communism and superstition; Nazism and superstition; Fascism and superstition; Rationalistic superstitions.
* Psychology and superstition; Science and superstition.
*Hyperstition; Post-stitionality; Stitionality; Unknown position; Xenology
Category:Occult