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In support of superstition (pro tem.)

To say something is superstitious is to speak relatively. The concise Oxford dictionary provides an inadequate definition of superstition;

 “excessively credulous belief in and reverence for supernatural beings: a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, of a practice based on such a belief.”

Some people think any belief in supernatural beings is credulous; likewise any belief in supernatural causation. Other people disagree and need not cite religious reasons for doing so.

Avoiding walking under ladders is widely perceived as superstitious, as is the avoidance of pork in meals yet they have a clear practical basis. Men or their pots of paint may fall on you as you pass, or an intestinal parasite may infest you as you chew your pork crackling.

As for causation; who claims to know the causes of anything, comprehensively? (What, for instance, is the effect on us of the black hole in the centre of the Milky Way?)

Arguably, we have lost the knowledge of the harms we try to deflect when avoiding black cats, the use of the colour green or the throwing of salt over our shoulder when we spill the salt cellar.

Wikipedia is much more authoritative on the subject. See it HERE

Being Irish, I am attracted to the Roman Catholic statement quoted in the entry;

“To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition. “

Being Irish, I recognise this in the secular world; many court cases are resolved in form only, not in substance. The recognition of this is seen in our hierarchy of courts.

We desperately need a functioning “court of appeal”, otherwise we will never get justice.