How Science Was Defeated by Superstition - Science and Health in America

Author: Bernam
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Therefore, they can laugh at science or religion without any restraint, or even laugh at both at the same time. Additionally, the decline of traditional superstitions can be easily demonstrated through the following thought experiment. Generations ago, a story about a haunted house would make people too afraid to stay. In modern times, such a rumor would only attract people to see if they can drive out the ghost or tease it. Although the so-called witchcraft worshippers and other supernatural believers tend to organize themselves, there is no longer any real credulity towards these traditional superstition projects. The tendency towards superstition among educated young people has also fundamentally changed. Compared to earlier times, these superstitions are likely to be more prevalent under their new disguises. However, the actual situation is not as severe as before. For the new believers, they are more inclined to explain bad luck rather than try to control good luck; and these explanations are more personalized rather than general explanations applicable to the entire group—for example, attributing it to someone’s special attire rather than the weather. The challenge to scientific objective laws has greatly diminished to the point that, for practical purposes, the safety and reliability of science seem no more meaningful than secretly admiring a lucky tie. Therefore, by the late 20th century, superstitions in the sense of witchcraft, magic, and charms no longer have influence, which is an overall easily provable fact. However, as superstitions against science—manifested as radical mysticism and harmful credulity—bring about other problems. The scope of this term far exceeds general mystical folk beliefs; thinkers have more appropriately used "superstition" to refer to a set of phenomena that would not occur under ideal conditions for science, including stubbornness, prejudice, and belief indoctrination, as well as the manipulation of individuals by mysterious forces and supernatural powers, and the exaggeration of the importance and power of subjective thoughts and feelings in general. This is merely a part of another anti-science movement, so the revival of contradictory and foolish supernatural beliefs might have a potential cultural significance. 7P10