superstition

WHAT IS SUPERSTITION?

To believe in spite of evidence or without evidence.

To account for one mystery by another.

To believe that the world is governed by chance or caprice.

To disregard the true relation between cause and effect.

To put thought, intention and design back of nature.

To believe that mind created and controls matter.

To believe in force apart from substance, or in substance
apart from force.

To believe in miracles, spells and charms, in dreams and
prophecies.

To believe in the supernatural.

The foundation of superstition is ignorance, the
superstructure is faith and the dome is a vain hope. Superstition
is the child of ignorance and the mother of misery.

In nearly every brain is found some cloud of superstition.

A woman drops a cloth with which she is washing dishes, and
she exclaims: "That means company."

Most people will admit that there is no possible connection
between dropping the cloth and the coming of visitors. The falling
cloth could not have put the visit desire in the minds of people
not present, and how could the cloth produce the desire to visit
the particular person who dropped it? There is no possible
connection between the dropping of the cloth and the anticipated
effects.

A man catches a glimpse of the new moon over his left
shoulder, and he says: "This is bad luck."

To see the moon over the right or left shoulder, or not to see
it, could not by any possibility affect the moon, neither could it
change the effect or influence of the moon on any earthly thing.
Certainly the left-shoulder glance could in no way affect the
nature of things. All the facts in nature would remain the same as
thought the glance had been over the right shoulder. We see no
connection between the left shoulder glance and any possible evil
effects upon the one who saw the moon in this way.

A girl counts the leaves of a flower, and she says: "One, he
comes; two, he tarries; three, he courts; four, he marries; five,
he goes away."

Of course the flower did not grow, and the number of its
leaves was not determined with reference to the courtship or
marriage of this girl, neither could there have been any
intelligence that guided her hand when she selected that particular
flower. So, counting the seeds in an apple cannot in any way
determine whether the future of an individual is to be happy or
miserable.

Thousands of persons believe in lucky and unlucky days,
numbers, signs and jewels.

Many people regard Friday as an unlucky day -- as a bad day to
commence a journey, to marry, to make any investment. The only
reason given is that Friday is an unlucky day.

Starting across the sea on Friday could have no possible
effect upon the winds, or waves, or tides, any more than starting
on any other day, and the only possible reason for thinking Friday
unlucky is the assertion that it is so.

So it is thought by many that it is dangerous for thirteen
people to dine together. Now, if thirteen is a dangerous number,
twenty-six ought to be twice as dangerous, and fifty-two four times
as terrible.

It is said that one of the thirteen will die in a year Now,
there is no possible relation between the number and the digestion
of each, between the number and the individual diseases. If
fourteen dine together there is greater probability, if we take
into account only the number, of a death within the year, than
there would be if only thirteen were at the table.

Overturning the salt is very unlucky, but spilling the vinegar
makes no difference.

Why salt should be revengeful and vinegar forgiving has never
been told.

If the first person who enters a theater is cross eyed, the
audience will be small and the "run" a failure.

How the peculiarity of the eyes of the first one who enters,
changes the intention of a community, or how the intentions of a
community cause the cross-eyed man to go early, has never been.
Now we are convinced of what is called the "uniformity of
nature." We believe that all things act and are acted upon in
accordance with their nature; that under like conditions the
results will always be substantially the same; that like ever has
and ever will produce like. We now believe that events have natural
parents and that none die childless.

Miracles are not simply impossible, but they are unthinkable
by any man capable of thinking.

Now an intelligent man cannot believe that a miracle ever was,
or ever will be, performed.

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.