Reply #177: Webster's Dictionary, 1992 definition of 'superstition': Irrational fear. [View All]

1) A belief founded on irrational feelings, especially of fear, and marked by credulity; also, any rite or practice inspired by such belief.

2) Specifically, a belief in a religious system regarded (by others than the believer) as without reasonable support; also, any of its rites.

3) Credulity regarding or reverence for the occult or supernatural, as belief in omens, charms, and signs; loosely, any unreasoning or unreasonable belief or impression.

4) Obs. Undue scrupulousness. See synonyms under FANATACISM.

< Latin - superstitio, -onis -
EXCESSIVE FEAR OF THE GODS, AMAZEMENT, DREAD
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"Casuistry begets caseation." -JohnOneillsMemory 2005
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I have studied evolution, psychology, history, and fascism.

My own conclusion for the basis of religious faith is the need to balance fear with hope in order to function well enough to survive, or what I call 'The Optimism Imperative.'

I wondered why humans always need to think they're parents are the best, their tribe is the best, their race is the best, their land is the best, their nation is the best, their religion is the best, etc.
EVEN WHEN IT IS OBVIOUSLY NOT SO.

It is emotionally devastating to find out Dad is an alcoholic, the priest is a pedophile, the president is a Nazi, and nature kills thousands of nice people arbitrarily.

#1 REASON FOR 'FAITH':
There seems to be a universal human need to believe that whatever source we originate from (parents, nature, cosmos, 'God', whatever)
WANTS US TO SUCCEED, WHICH IS TO SAY, SURVIVE.

This is what I term 'The Optimism Imperative.'

Evolution holds the answer. All biological behavior mechanisms (for 'mind' is a biological artifact of 'brain') are intended to aid survival.

I believe that the motivation for leaving your cave to find food and a mate requires more hope than fear. Fear is good for learning more about the tiger than the tiger knows about you but too much fear leads to depression and lack of 'the drive to survive.' You never leave the cave and life goes on without you.

Consequently, more hope than fear is required to prevent withdrawal from the environment which deters survival. This is the 'flight' component of fear. No food + no mate= no survival.

The 'fight' component of fear as a mass movement leads to the 'Master Race' and 'Chosen Few' syndrome we know as the Dominionist Fascism we are experiencing in this country 60 years after Europe bottomed out on those failed responses and evolved to secular humanism.

#2 Reason for 'Faith' (and the resulting religious trappings):

Again, evolution holds the answer.

As the human species evolved into social groups and started to live cooperatively, a problem needed to be solved for 'peace in the family.'

Namely...men and their propensity for violence and sex.

Two genders of human exist (for some reason) and millions of years ago their skill sets were specialized for diametrically opposed functions.

Women, as the bearers of children, were vulnerable to wild animals since they bled monthly, became pregnant, and nursed children. They also have smaller and weaker bodies.
Consequently, their brains evolved more socially in order to enlist aid and protection from others and socialize the young.

Why? Because they HAD TO. They embody the HOPE factor.

Men came to be the 'designated killers' for hunting and protection from wild animals and are helped by testosterone and larger bodies.

Why? Because they HAD TO. They embody the FEAR factor.

This is the millions of years of neuron/hormone/body/behavior evolution we have inherited from our ancient ancestors and the key difference between men and women that every stand-up comic, unfortunately, taps into relentlessly.

BUT, once we started to live together in larger and larger groups it became apparent that men needed to tone down all the fighting and fornicating to protect the women and children and get along with the other men cooperatively instead of competitively.

SO, rules were codified to 'house-train' men for peaceful coexistence and 'religious morality' was born several thousand years ago, barely a nanosecond in our evolutionary lifetime as a species.

The power balance between men and women has changed drastically with the advent of tools, law enforcement, and birth control (a good thing for women and children) but the several thousand year-old religious texts are based on different needs that have now become archaic and tend to induce neurosis due to being in conflict with today's circumstances. We are different humans in very different circumstances and our brains have evolved.

Leaving behind the old texts full of fearful violence from a scarier existence when weather, tectonics, and volcanism weren't understood and were instead ascribed to judgemental acts of deities scares people who have been raised to believe that these texts still explain the context for humans in the cosmos.

Those who wonder how we can co-exist without a religiously based code of morality would be comforted to learn that science has proven that compassion and empathy have become hard-wired into our brain's by evolution. The stress portions of our brains are activated when we see another human face showing signs of stress. This is probably because being interdependent social creatures requires us to learn how to survive from others. Seeing someone alarmed by a rattlesnake or wincing from eating a poisonous berry can save your life.

So we have already evolved biologically to be 'kinder gentler' animals which don't require the threat of punishment from deities to 'be nice.'

Jesus' teachings of nurturing the weak, forgiveness, and pacifism represent this next stage of our evolution but he was 'ahead of his time' and the less evolved humans killed him for seeming to make more sense than the old violently authoritarian way of living. Competition for allegiance is a threat not tolerated by the king.

Today, we are closer to the point of this next evolutionary step in human existence but there is STILL a vast difference in evolutionary progress towards peaceful co-existence among this planet's billions of humans.

And that's the BIG disparity which leads to less-evolved Nazis throwing more-evolved Jews into the ovens. This is not survival.

The biggest problem liberals (like Jesus) face is how to assist the evolutionary progress of our fellow humans without becoming extinct martyrs! ("I want to help along my fellow humans but I am not willing to go into the oven or torture Iraqis to do so.")

The fascists and neo-cons are DELIBERATELY PREVENTING AMERICAN'S EVOLUTION WITH IRRATIONAL THEOLOGY,PROPAGANDA, DRUGS, BAD FOOD, AND SLEEP DEPRIVATION TO MAINTAIN A CONTROLLED FEARFUL STATE LEADING TO VIOLENCE.

But they have tipped the balance between fear and hope too far in the direction of fear and they are beginning to lose control. The fearful affect of Pearl Harbor-I mean-9/11 is wearing off and Americans are growing weary of violence as they did during the Vietnam War.

The consequences of the American Fascist Experiment is showing in our obesity, ADD, HDD, depression, and other behavioral challenges taking a toll on our physical and mental health. This is bad for productivity/profits and why even tighter control of the media and a soon-to-be mandatory psychological assessment of public school children's mental health will happen this year with an Orwellian act of Congress called 'The New Freedom Initiative.'

The fascists are figuring out how much they can manipulate us before suffering diminishing return on their abusive tactics.

"Maybe upping the profits of the pharmaceutical industry will kill two birds with one stone. How about some Old-fashioned Blind Faith since being rational leads to noticing the horror of fascism's poverty, torture, and war."

Marx said "Religion is the opiate of the masses." Now religion AND drugs are being prescribed. Both have lethal side-effects.

Just as men and women have evolved to be more like each other to modify previously useful polarized skill sets, now liberals need to be STRONGER ON DEFENSE of themselves and others because this is still a violent and dangerous human world with many less evolved than others.

Liberals have been TOO OPTIMISTIC.
Conservatives, TOO FEARFUL.
Nature rewards those who balance these two driving mechanisms.

Because it's impossible to tune your mandolin while your neighbor throws rocks at you.

Liberals need to figure out how to help Americans EVOLVE without being eliminated themselves.

Please do whatever you can to help your family, friends, co-workers, and Congress EVOLVE ALREADY!