There’s a hilarious website called Conservapedia. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Anyway, I like reading it for laughs, as it is so blatantly biased, so un-factual, so paranoid that its impossible to NOT laugh at it. But anyway, I was reading it’s article on atheism, and it makes a claim that irreligious people are more superstitious than religious people (http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism#Irreligion_and_Superstition). I read the source article from the Wall Street Journal, and it went into more detail (Conservapedia cherry-picked, obviously). The main thing they classified as “superstition” was belief in the paranormal. Interestingly, a higher percentage of College Seniors believed in the paranormal than College Freshmen. Regardless, various denominations of Christian churches had a higher percentage of belief in the paranormal than the irreligious that were surveyed.
My main point in this was when reading this on Conservapedia, I asked myself “isn’t religion the biggest superstition of all? Aren’t there a plethora of superstitious beliefs that come along with religion. You might say “Religion is different than superstition!!!” But that’s where you’re wrong. Here is the official dictionary definition of “superstition:”
–noun
1. a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
2. a system or collection of such beliefs.
3. a custom or act based on such a belief.
4. irrational fear of what is unknown or mysterious, esp. in connection with religion.
5. any blindly accepted belief or notion.
So we have established that religion does fall under the realm of superstition. But that probably won’t convince the average religious person. This is a conversation I imagined myself having with such a person. My imaginary religious person prototype will be named Jim for the instance of this conversation.
(in medias res)
Jim: …Oh yeah, well atheists like you are more superstitious than religious people! How do you explain that, Mr. Smart-ass? Huh?
Me: Well I’m not personally superstitious, but what do you mean superstitious? Like, believing in things that are unfounded?
Jim: Yes, exactly.
Me: Well, I’d first question what on earth you call your religious beliefs, but for the sake of argument, I’ll say I believe Friday the Thirteenths are unlucky.
Jim: Why do you believe that? That isn’t really logical.
Me: Well society has designated that as an unlucky day.
Jim: Just because a lot of people believe that doesn’t make it true.
(Pause for irony)
Me: Ok, well what if I told you that lots of unlucky things had happened to me on past Friday the Thirteenths?
Jim: That still wouldn’t validate the belief because if you THINK the day is unlucky in advance, you’re more likely to remember bad things happening then than on other days, which just blend together. For instance, Tuesday the 20th might be statistically much unluckier for you in terms of bad events happening, but because society hasn’t attached a stigma to Tuesday the 20th, you don’t associate those bad memories with that particular day. Your perception of the day skews your rational thought about it.
Me: Fair enough. But what if I personally have felt evil forces at work on Friday the Thirteenth? Are you saying I’m delusional?
Jim: Define “evil forces.”
Me: You know, just a feeling of impending “bad-ness” and overall anxiety.
Jim: Did you feel that before you thought Friday the Thirteenth was bad, or is it only after.
Me: I can’t remember. I was pretty young when I started believing Friday the Thirteenth was bad.
Jim: So are you saying that you didn’t have a concept of Friday the Thirteenth’s significance/association with bad luck from the moment of your birth?
Me: Of course not, I found out about it through society, my parents, my friends.
Jim: It seems like it’s all in your head. You just look for things to conform with your beliefs about Friday the Thirteenth and disregard other factors. That’s called confirmation bias. We look for evidence that confirms our beliefs, not disproves them. What about this, say I show you evidence, SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE, that Tuesday the 20th is actually you’re unlucky day. Would you believe this?
Me: I might. I could question the study.
Jim: You could, true. But would you retain your belief that Friday the Thirteenth is unlucky as well?
Me: Most likely, yes.
Jim: Why?
Me: I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve been living with those ideas for so long, since I was little.
Jim: That still doesn’t make it any more true.
Me: My belief doesn’t have to be based on evidence.
Jim: Why not?
Me: It’s a matter of faith.
Jim: So you’re just going to believe it because you believe it, regardless of evidence?!
Me: Yes.
Jim: That’s idiotic.
Me: Jim, I want you to replace all instances of “Friday the Thirteenth” with “God” or “Christianity” or “Jesus.” Those are literally the exact same arguments every religious person uses, including yourself. Your belief cannot be justified any better than a common superstition.
Jim: But the Bible is evidence!
Me: A 2000 year old pre-science book written by tribal desert bigots and then amended later on by cult members. Sounds reliable to me. There is not a single instance in that collection of books that couldn’t have been written by someone at the time. Man isn’t given dominion over bacteria, but he is over birds, animals, and fish. Any reason we weren’t given permission by God to have our way with microbes? Just an example.
Jim: Well the Bible is widely accepted and the majority of scholars don’t question it’s author-age.
Me: Just because a majority accepts something, does that make it right? And if by author you’re talking about God, I can find a good deal of scientists/historians who will disagree with that statement is. Scholars have begun to question who even wrote the Gospel of Mark, and have found that it seems unfinished and was later added onto to conform to the other gospels.
Jim: Well regardless, there’s no evidence for Friday the Thirteenth being unlucky. It’s a baseless tradition.
Me: Well actually, Friday has been considered an unlucky day since at least the 14th Century. It’s even mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. And the number thirteen’s unluckiness predates Christianity. 12 was viewed as a complete number (see the Zodiac), and thirteen brought imbalance to that equilibrium. Norse mythology also has references to it, and in fact, in the Bible it claims that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and Jesus had 12 disciples. 12 + 1 (Jesus at the last supper) = 13 = unlucky. So in fact, my superstition has about as much evidence as your religious belief.
Jim: Well, that’s done it! I guess I was wrong. Thanks for making me think about why I believe what I believe! I don’t have to just blindly accept what people feed me!
Me: No problem Jim!
(shake hands)
Conversation ends. I return to reality. It was pretty realistic up until the very end there, wasn’t it? Thanks for being a good sport, Jim.
Originally Posted to Tumblr on September 30th, 2010
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