0
Superstitions
Beliefs and practices resulting from the human need to find causation in the everyday happenings of life. This is where we will try to unravel some of the unusual and esoteric things people ask us about.
1,659 Questions
What is the purpose of demons?
The purpose of demons is to frighten people so that the person doing the frightening will gain some benefit or power over a susceptible believer.
Nothing make/made them real. Superstitions are in the mind of the people who believe them, but they really don't exist in reality. We just think they do.
Why do the Irish believe in luck?
All people believe in luck in some form or other... The Irish no more or less then others.
Is it bad luck for a necklace to break?
The necklace has an association with a collar - as to a dog either via bond or control or protection of the master. In terms when a chain breaks it is believed that a bond will be broken....bad or good - it may relate to work such as no longer employed or freedom from a boss as he may be going out giving you freedom with a new boss or to step into that role. Also in relationships.....a boy in the U.S. would give his high school ring for all to see on his girlfriends necklace....hence stating his status or protection/etc...if the chain is to break means that the relationship will soon end. Is there truth to these yes and no.
Young love is fickle and employment changes as we pursue advancement in careers.... the honesty is the common action of nervous people about the status or security of their relationships well most finger or toy with these items distressing the jewelry causing the break. So is the superstition valid there is a term called yank my chain--no you must thing the relationship was troubled to start this creates unaware abuse or neglect of the item - no chain either relationship of personal matter or work can be continuously stressed or abused without breaking --but if in a good place we revere and take better care ensuring the necklace doesn't get broken.
Jewelry is delicate and takes uppermost care as with all relationship and if we fail to do so it states the actual relationship sense of failure ---hence why people associate a broken relationship a chain to another as a symbol of break-up. In work there is the term chain of command and love chains or bonds of love. Relax - as nothing in life is meant to be permanent - it also mean in the recesses of our minds we need to defuse the instability with our relationships but what is broken you have a choice repair the necklace or replace with one much better ---All superstitions are rooted in reducing the pain and noticing our emotional insecurities to allow us to focus on the realism of the world to be honest the quality of the chain may not be good as with any relationship did you invest in a good relationship? or if bought for yourself did you invest in you very well?
Is it bad luck to get a Chinese family symbol tattoo?
There is no such thing as bad luck. You are an idiot
Why did someone leave a chicken bone on your doorstep?
Leaving a chicken bone on someone's doorstep is meant to bring that particular household bad luck. It is a gesture of ill will. The practice probably has roots in voodoo.
Are gargoyles bad luck if they are looking upon your house?
Yes they are but you will only have bad luck for 2 weeks
This is absolute nonsense, people who write these crazy chain letter are bored and have nothing to do except try to scare other people. they should learn to read a good book and do something constructive with their lives! Do not pay attention to this garbage.
What does two feathers falling from the sky mean symbolyze?
That the bird flying overhead is starting to go bald.
What are superstitions about red cardinals?
The Cardinal is one of the most easily recognizable birds and was chosen by seven states to be their official state bird. The Cardinal with its brilliant red color can be seen throughout the twelve months of the year and is often depicted on Christmas cards and gift wrap. Their eggs hatch in twelve days.
The number twelve connected with the Cardinal is why there is a folkloric belief that they are lucky. When a Cardinal flies into your life you can expect a change for the better to occur within twelve days, twelve weeks, twelve months or at the hour of twelve. Or if you observe a Cardinal flying upward toward the sky you will have good luck. Be sure to welcome the Cardinal to your windowsill for it is the spirit of a recently deceased relative or friend.
What are the effects of superstition to people?
If people truly believe in the superstistion it can really damaged their mental well being if they are confronted with the belief...like if they see a black cat or end up walking under a laddeer.
There's also the belief that the dead will come back and harm the living, so those that believ this use a lot of time and energy trying to keep their dead ancestors appeased.
Example of superstitious beliefs and explain the basis for it?
An example of a superstitious belief is that spilling salt is bad luck. It originated because both spilling things and bad luck are fairly ordinary events and it is difficult to disprove the correlation.
Is there any scientific basis for superstitions?
While there are certainly historical, anthropological and cultural reasons behind most superstitions, they are called superstitions because of the very fact that they have no basis in Science.
Give at least 5 superstitions belief?
1. step on a crack and break ypur Mother's back.
2. walk under a ladder
3. Break a Mirror and get 7 years of bad luck
4. Black Cat crosses your path
5. Waste salt and you have bad luck
Why do you call bad luck when you spill salt?
It might be because theres so many salt grains you have to puck up, good question
Differentiate superstitions from scientific beliefs?
Superstition is an irrational belief that is deeply held, even in the absence of evidence, and that always causes some degree of anxiety when it plays out [situations for example where you have no alternative but to walk under a ladder, or step on a crack-- and then something horrible happens!]. Superstitions are inner convictions about how the world operates, and they are hard to overcome. Even though they may lead to some anxiety, they are ways for us to experience consistency in the world, and sometimes it is easier for us to want our superstitions to be 'true' [yes, once again I see that the world is consistent] than it is to give them up [I'm free of that, and now open to new possibilities].
In very simple terms science is the accumulation of knowledge, sometimes slow and laborious, based on observation and the manipulating of variables in order to see what affects what. As time goes on, a more and more consistent view of the physical world develops, and scientific beliefs can be used to explore and develop new areas of technology.
A Little More Exploring
The distinction between the two seems at first to be complete and unambiguous, doesn't it? But a sharp distinction between superstition and scientific belief really may not be possible. The way humans believe is not neatly divided into these two categories. Superstition is a kind of magical thinking where a person is convinced that taboo behaviors somehow force something bad to happen. There is hardly a person, however scientific he may think himself to be, who is totally free from even the slightest degree of superstition. Try any of the following to test this out: put your shoes and socks on in the order different from usual. Change the order of your morning rituals-- brush first then shave, change the way you shower-- and notice what happens. There is some tug on you that doing things out of their 'proper' order will result in something bad or uncomfortable. Take as an example someone who experiences 'bad luck' when a black cat crosses his path. You might develop an experiment where you will randomly make a black cat cross his path, even with his knowledge, in an attempt to prove to him that the superstition is nonsense. But the superstition is like an 'inner engine', and the person will see to it (not consciously) that there will be 'bad luck' each time the cat crosses his path. So, for him, superstition is supported by repeated experimentation!
'Scientific belief' on the other hand should refer to knowledge that has been theorized and repeatedly tested out. But clearly not everything we do and believe has come under the scrutiny of the 'scientific method'. It would be absurd for us to require scientific backing for every step we take and every move we make. We can just be 'reasonable' about how we approach things. It sometimes surprises us to learn that one of our pet 'scientific beliefs' is really urban legend, and to discover how hard it is to give up one of these beliefs in favor of something more supportable. We've all experienced this kind of 'clash in the head' when we learn that something we have comfortably assumed for a long time is, in fact, not true. The history of science highlights many times when world views have abruptly changed, and adherents to the older theory fought tooth-and-nail to maintain their ways of thinking, even though they clearly represented what had become irrational thinking.
This leads us to consider that science, however lofty one thinks of it as the source of the highest levels of objective truth, may have some element of superstition in it, just as the guy with the black cat superstition can say that his superstition has some element of 'science' in it.
The bottom line is that while superstition and scientific belief are different in some ways, they also share some interesting and very human things in common. They involve an investment of personal energy in advancing a certain world view. A superstitious person will see the world and operate in the world within the limits of his world view. A scientist might approach certain questions because there is a personal investment in the importance of the work, to the exclusion of the work of others, sometimes. Both individuals might be operating out of a set of false or flawed assumptions, all based on what is going on inside. "I'm convinced that this is the way the world is, so obviously my set of observations (not that other person's) are really the important ones, and so the questions I come up with are really going to get to the heart of the matter."
This investment of personal energy is really the uniting factor, and the thing that should make everyone humble about being sure of one's knowledge. The best approach is to be willing to question everything, and not get too bothered when a pet theory or belief is challenged or debunked.
What are the example of superstitous beliefs?
Some examples of a superstitous beliefs are: * not to walk under ladders * don't let a black cat cross your path * point at a rainbow try this website for some wierder ones: http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html
