Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Superstition

According to Merriam-Webster:
"a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation"
  • "What apparently grounds the widespread respect in which religions of all kinds are held is the sense that those who are religious are well intentioned, trying to lead morally good lives, earnest in their desire not to do evil, and to make amends for their transgressions."
William James in "The Varieties of Religious Experiences":
"There is religious fear, religious love, religious awe, religious joy, and so forth. But religious love is only man's natural emotion of love directed to a religious object; religious fear is only the ordinary fear of commerce, so to speak, the common quaking of the human breast, in so far as the notion of divine retribution may arouse it; religious awe is the same organic thrill which we feel in a forest at twilight, or in a mountain gorge; only this time it comes over us at the though of our supernatural relations."

No comments:

Post a Comment