Science has attempted to offer elucidation of everything; the gender of an unborn child, estimate of earthquake strength, and prediction of hailstorms to prospects of success; it even explicates the rise of criminality based on statistical calculation. Events that inspire awe and amazement may arouse curiosity about their causality, and when it fails to surface, attributions that by pass science become rampant. When there is no physical process linking the cause an event, it classically qualifies superstition (according to the evolved lot of humans). When you know why it happens; its science, when you don’t, its superstition.
Statistics: how they work and fail
The placebo effect of sugar a pill versus an actual antidepressant medication is real. In 33% of the cases the sugar pill elevates mood (surely owing to the belief that it will) while the antidepressant has been known to uplift emotion only in 66% of cases (is it the fallacy of medical science?) Neither have an all or none principle they habitually follow: That placebo will always fail or that medication will always work. Hence statistics seem warped and beliefs get imprinted without foundation. Nonetheless, 66 is a higher figure than 33, and then tendency of the medication to work will be higher than the sugar pill or nothing at all.
Statistics in superstition
Unreal beliefs can get accentuated by the variability in their numerical success. Events needn't always generate effect. However if they do, they are labeled as causal. The ‘chance’ effect gets omitted in these occurrences. When the effect is not engendered, people believe that trial and further repeated trial leads to success. Thus the ritual may be continued incessantly and one day the effect is noticed.
- The black cat crossed my path; I had a car accident that day
- I didn't say my prayers the other day so my mother fell sick
- I had an interview on Friday the 13th and I obviously failed
- I praised her but didn't touch wood; she will face bad luck
- The bird shat on my head, that’s why I did well in that exam
There are too many cats in the world, they didn't all select their own skin color and they have to walk around somewhere, they cannot be stationary just because they are black! Cat lovers wouldn't believe in the cat myth; yet part of the rest of the world does. Prayers offer self-contentment, enhance one’s awareness of a higher faith; at the same time if God really exists, His greatness goes beyond listening to prayers. He will watch his beloved children even without hearing from them. The calendar was created by man and every once in a while there will be a Friday which will be 13th, it doesn't necessitate ill omen. Yes Christ was crucified on a Friday and Juda was the 13th guest at the last supper; it doesn't offer adequate reason to blame the day as wretched. An itch in the palm calls for anti-allergic medication; it has no impact on gaining or losing money (as is erroneously presumed). The irrationality of superstition can only be challenged by a sane mind.
The self-fulfilling prophecy
More often than not we hold unreal beliefs, and merely by establishing confidence in them we make them true. If we believe Friday the 13th will make the interview bad, we add to the apprehension thereby ascertaining that the nervousness disrupts performance and we indeed fail. The perception of the black cat arouses fretfulness which destroys focus and allows a road accident. It’s not really the date or the cat that made this happen. The superstition generates anxiety that alters rational behavior and itself motivates negative consequences. For those who don’t know what bad luck is, don’t really perceive its impact.
Superstitions are really not super
The wise take accountability for their successes and shortcomings. They don’t believe that anything besides their effort or lack of it can influence outcomes. They don’t agonize over luck or vacillate over falsities. Superstitions don’t influence positive outcomes. Life is hard anyways; why add obstacles to your own path by believing in supernatural causes without? Live happy, live free!
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