Superstition

Many years ago, when I was dating, I didn’t have a lot of cash flow (and, of course, a lot of my cash kept flowing for dates), and so I used to keep an eye out for money that people had left lying on the ground (even with the economy in the state it’s in now, I’m surprised out how many people don’t think it’s worth the trouble to bend over to pick up a dropped penny). My soon-to-be mother-in-law told me I shouldn’t keep the pennies unless they were heads up. She said that finding a heads up penny is good luck, but if you find one that has the tail’s side up, then you should pick it up and throw it over your shoulder, and maybe the next person will find it heads up, and then they will get good luck. I just laughed and told her, “Any time I find money, that’s good luck.”

There have been a lot of interesting superstitions that have developed over the years. Of course, America, being the “great melting pot,” has absorbed superstitions from almost everywhere else on earth. Some superstitions are even traced back to Scripture, for example, the fear of the number thirteen (triskaidekaphobia) supposedly dates back to the Last Supper, when Jesus had dinner with His twelve disciples (no explanation that I am aware of explains why He traveled with these men for three years before the “bad luck” set in). Still, we have had people carry rabbit’s feet, or nail horse shoes over doors, throw salt over their shoulders… I try not to make fun of people’s superstitions, and I am occasionally surprised to find out that people doing these things know that they are being superstitious, but they just feel the need to act on their beliefs, anyway.

Recently, a group of atheists bought advertizing on 800 buses in the United Kingdom. /span>Part of the reason that they did that is because they kept seeing buses with religious advertising on them. The atheists’ message? “There probably is no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The word probably has been attacked as being wishy-washy, but they wanted to avoid any legal trouble based on claims of false advertising (in other words, if someone made trouble for them, and they wound up in a court that was less than sympathetic to their goals, they might be asked to provide proof of the claim that they made in their advertisement). There are a couple of points of interest here: 1) Statistically speaking, people who are devoutly religious generally worry less and are happier than those who are not. This has been pointed out to the atheists time and time again, but there standard response is something to the effect of, that’s not a good enough reason to continue to believe in superstition. Personally, I think I would worry more if I didn’t believe in a God who has ultimate control and has my best interests at heart. I certainly don’t have very much control over my own life… 2) I would hope that these ads will get people to at least stop and think about what it is they believe and why. If I go to church because my parents went to church and their parents went to church, that’s not a very good reason. I should put some thought and study and prayer into what I believe. Mom and Dad might have had some very confused ideas—whether they called themselves Christians, or Hindus, or atheists; but I’m responsible for my own actions and beliefs.