Superstiton

[giles337]

Just a thought that popped up:- What superstitions do you peole (for want of a better word ) belive in?? (happy now you conformist scum )

[C Elegans]

Not sure I understand the question Do you mean what superstitions we believe in? If so, my answer is: as few as possible, I constantly watch myself and assess the foundation of my opinions and beliefs.

[Vicsun]

I'm with CE on this one by saying: What?

I read your post several times, but I can't make any sense of it.


Friendly advice:
1. Don't just write your train of thought down - think before you post. Posting whatever comes to your mind when it comes to your mind results in unintelligable posts.


2. Copy your post into Microsoft Word, or something similar to spellcheck it. (Superstiton? Superstion? What?)


3. Proof read!!! (the sentance What superstions are you peole (for want of a better word ) do you guys subscribe (genuinely for a want of a better word ) to??? makes no sense. At all.)

Follow those three steps and my life would be a lot easier.


edit (after reading JazzyAnna's response):
4. If posting drunk at least tell us so, so we don't have to try to make sense of your posts.

[JazzyAnna]

He might have been drinking when he wrote this. I wouldn't doubt that.

[Craig]

He's been on the .... cheese.


I was able to decipher the post. I wonder why? Giles wants to know If we believe in any kind of superstistion.

I don't believe in many things of a superstitious nature. Maybe that anyone who plays me at pool gets bad luck, but not much else.

[Vicsun]

Originally Posted by craig

I was able to decipher the post. I wonder why? Giles wants to know If we believe in any kind of superstistion.

I think we could all decipher it, but my point is that I shouldn't have to decipher anything.


Unless it's written in German, of course

[C Elegans]

Originally Posted by craig

I was able to decipher the post. I wonder why? Giles wants to know If we believe in any kind of superstistion.

Hehehe A good translator must know both languages he translate between

I do however agree with Vicsun that you @Giles should make an effort to write with proper grammar and spelling since it is not very funny to communicate with somebody if you don't even know what you reply to.

[fable]

Any superstitions that I believe are, by their nature, not superstitions.

[Brynn]

Stop pestering Giles, folks. We've already found out what he meant, haven't we? No point in picking at him, then.

To believe in superstitions is a foolish thing, imho. I can see no way that a black cat crossing the street could affect my future.

[Yeltsu]

Well, I think religion is a superstition

[fable]

Originally Posted by Brynn

To believe in superstitions is a foolish thing, imho. I can see no way that a black cat crossing the street could affect my future.

One person's experiential existence of the world is another person's superstitions. My Ukrainian great-grandforebears undoubtedly had strange beliefs about what was lucky and unlucky (such as leaving a bit of milk every evening to the domnovoi, the spirit who took care of the house), but they would have laughed themselves sick over people who actually believed representative government involved accepting a candidate who received 50.1% of the vote while discarding everything else. We worship rule-by-majority, here in the US, as though it were a religion. Choose your own local flavor.

[C Elegans]

Originally Posted by Brynn

Stop pestering Giles, folks. We've already found out what he meant, haven't we? No point in picking at him, then.

No we haven't actually, because he hasn't responded and confirmed whether our guesses are correct or incorrect. The belief that we already know what he meant because we are a group who have second-guessed his thoughts, is actually typical superstition

Superstitions of the type "if a black cat cross the street it means bad luck for me" are easy to test with measurement. That's the kind of issues you often deal with in science and what scientific method is for - is there real relationship between A and B or not? Does A cause B? etc.

Superstitions of the type Fable refers to, that we in the Western world (not only the US I think) worship majority rule, is more complex since they may contain a mix of many unfounded superstitions (ie a democracy is fair) that people believe in as dogma, but also rational opinions such as utilistic values. However, it is partly possible to test but not in the simple manner as you can set up experiements. You can look at history, field studies and do hypothesis testing for some parts. Problem is - the human species is far too irrational to test out reality like this. Most people prefer to use their personal feelings, their close surrounding in time and geography and their own personal reference frame, as more valid than objective and inpersonal information. Thus, the line between superstition and rational informed opinion becomes not only blurry, but a grey area the size of a football field.

[Vicsun]

A quick question, since I need to be writing something else at the moment:

Has anyone else noticed that it's more often than not the beliefs that are the most unjustified, or hardest to justify, that are defended the most fervently? From things as big as religion and morals, to things as small as musical tastes - the ferventness of Christians trying to impose what's right and wrong on me is only comparable to the zealotry with which Nirvana fans are trying to tell me why this 'Syndrome of a Down' and 'all the other crap they play on the radio' is awful and should not even be considered music.

Hope this isn't too off-topic and doesn't step on anyone's toes...

[Morril]

Originally Posted by Brynn

I can see no way that a black cat crossing the street could affect my future.

According to "The Chaos Theory" (modern physics) everything (even a single movement from a butterfly's wing) can affect your future

[Brynn]

Originally Posted by Vicsun

Has anyone else noticed that it's more often than not the beliefs that are the most unjustified, or hardest to justify, that are defended the most fervently?

In case of religions this is definitely true. You're expected to believe in something that cannot be touched or sensed in any physical way - therefore, it doesn't exist for material people. Someone described this with the following metaphor: "Explaining what God is to a man is like explaining what a sphere is to a line".

Well, back to topic - superstition (as I interpret it) is old, traditional belief in irrational things, and not neccessarily belief in the supernatural. Can anyone give a more exact definition?