Can you be an Athiest AND superstitious?

smorgs wrote:

But it is illogical, surely?

I'm not saying I have definite views on it... I am willing to listen to others opinions.

I always assumed atheism to be a question of logic, but then is it more illogical to be atheist as one can never prove or disprove the existence of God?

To be an atheist means you do not believe in a higher being/deity and humans are in charge of their own destiny...

To be superstitious seems (to me) to suggest that there are unseen forces at work???

If they are unseen - what are they? Surely supernatural?

The state of atheism is simply the state of being 'without god/s'
The rational or logic(or lack of) used to arrive at this position are completely irrelevant to the position itself. One can believe in fairies, cookie monster, and george w bushes intelligence while still being without a belief in deities.Such a person is no less an atheist than one that rejects the supernatural wholesale.

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I think that religion and superstition are often drummed into human beings when they are too young to know better in the same way that a fear of the dark or insects maybe the result of a bad childhood experience or impression.

Of course some people are "born again" to such things later in life but yet I think for the majority this is not the case and so it is meaningless when somebody writes in a smug way about the idiocies of superstition, the irrationalities of religion, as though it is purely due to their fine intelligence that they know better.

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True believers do not recognice coincidence...only grace and blessing.

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Intrepid wrote:

True believers do not recognice[sic] coincidence...only grace and blessing.

So then in order to be a 'true believer', one must believe god has a personal hand in manipulating every event that has ever taken place?

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Can't one believe in ghosts, spirits, fate, etc. without believing in a theos?
Yes: there are examples in the world.

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Doktor S wrote:

Intrepid wrote:
True believers do not recognice[sic] coincidence...only grace and blessing.

So then in order to be a 'true believer', one must believe god has a personal hand in manipulating every event that has ever taken place?

Not necessarily.

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JLNobody wrote:

Can't one believe in ghosts, spirits, fate, etc. without believing in a theos?
Yes: there are examples in the world.

In fact, you can't do better than the Chinese for omnibus superstition. Before the communist state, it was common for a successful Chinese to have in his home, a shrine to his ancestors, a shrine to Jehovah, a shrine to Mohammed, a shrine to Jesus, and for him to burn "joss" sticks for good luck. Basically, the attitude of many Chinese in those days was to hedge all their bets, and as much as possible, to leave no one and nothing out of the quest for "good luck."

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Setanta wrote:

JLNobody wrote:
Can't one believe in ghosts, spirits, fate, etc. without believing in a theos?
Yes: there are examples in the world.

In fact, you can't do better than the Chinese for omnibus superstition. Before the communist state, it was common for a successful Chinese to have in his home, a shrine to his ancestors, a shrine to Jehovah, a shrine to Mohammed, a shrine to Jesus, and for him to burn "joss" sticks for good luck. Basically, the attitude of many Chinese in those days was to hedge all their bets, and as much as possible, to leave no one and nothing out of the quest for "good luck."

Heh. Pretty naive attitude, to build shrines to several monotheistic dieties in order to 'hedge your bets'. The bible at least frowns on worshipping any other deity then JHWH.

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BBB
That's why I was so surprised that Mao was able to foment the Communist revolution given the Chinese propensity for superstition.

BBB

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Probably picked an auspicious day to start it...

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I'm sure he consulted an expert to determine the auspices, and consulted the yarrow stalks and the Book of Changes--just to be on the safe side . . .

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That sounds right.
SO, theism is only one of many forms of superstition.
People, of course, consider their own belief system to be religion but that of other cultures to be superstitions. An atheist sees them all as superstitions.
To me, the defining characteristic of superstition is its supernaturalism.

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And then there are superstitions that are not quite outside the realm of science - like coincidence. I have, at various times, made very major decisions (changing continents, changing careers) in my life primarily on the basis of a perceived coincidence or coincidences.

I do not claim it to have a rational basis, but it made the otherwise scary decision feel (emotionally) the obvious thing to do.

Is this superstitious? Or if God talks, does he talk with dice??

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A good point--superstition serves at least an emotional purpose, even if it is not religious superstition.

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I pretty much go along with the recent thrust here - religion/religious faith is but a particular manifestation of superstition, albeit the manifestation demonstratedly having the greatest potential for being contributory to, if not outright causitive of, many of the greatest ills and setbacks humankind has inflicted, and continues to inflict, upon itself. It is in religion that the ignorance and passion of superstition presents most clearly the intolerable danger inherent to its irrationality and emotional gratification.

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Can you be an Athiest AND superstitious?

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