The Christian emperor Constantine called paganism superstition, while the pagan statesman Tacitus called Christianity a pernicious, irrational belief. Throughout history, one person’s superstition was often another’s religion. That superstition and the birth of spirituality go hand in hand is not surprising. Whereas earlier Homo sapiens abandoned the dead, Neanderthals buried their dead with ritual funerals, interring with the body food, weapons, and fire charcoals to be used in the next life. Perhaps this is how it should be, for superstitions are an ancient part of our human heritage.Īrchaeologists identify Neanderthal man, who roamed throughout Western Asia fifty thousand years ago, as having produced the first superstitious (and spiritual) belief: survival in an afterlife. Across America, tens of thousands of lottery tickets are penciled in every day based on nothing more or less than people’s lucky numbers. Yet even today, when objective evidence is valued highly, few people, if pressed, would not admit to secretly cherishing one, or two, or many superstitions. Superstitious beliefs, given their irrational nature, should have receded with the arrival of education and the advent of science.
On the other hand, these same people, hoping for good luck, might cross their fingers or, knock wood.
Samuel Johnson entered and exited a building with his right foot foremost.īad-luck superstitions still keep many people from walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella indoors, or boarding an airplane on Friday the thirteenth.
Peter the Great suffered a pathological terror of crossing bridges. Henry VIII claimed witchcraft trapped him into a marriage with Anne Boleyn. Napoleon feared black cats Socrates the evil eye. Superstitions: 50,000 Years Ago, Western Asia
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