Superstition
Superstition is a belief or fear of the unknown resulted from a false conception of the causation. In other words, this is an irrational belief that a circumstance unrelated to the course of an event has influence on the outcome. The superstitious behavior occurs when an event reinforces in almost the same time with an independent behavior. An individual associates the behavior with the event that reinforced the belief thus increasing the likelihood of such a behavior to occur again.
A superstitious person is able to create an association because the cultural belief is positively reinforced by the event or attributed to it. Superstition arises from the incorrect assignment of cause and effect of a circumstance that is affected by particular cultural beliefs. The Tarot cards are used to address a question; however, they are not intended to give specific answers as “yes” or “no”. The Tarot cards are used as a guidance to make a right decision, but are not intended make decisions for an individual. The Tarot cards only help to get to one’s subconscious mind and think in detail. People believe in superstitious things as signs of acceptance of the limitations of their own powers. People find the universe and its operations to be very complicated for their comprehension and understanding. Superstitions result from the fear of the unknown that befalls people to limit them to a particular incidence. To counter these fears, they use a superstition to feel that they can control the universe. The superstitious ideas help to fight the fear of the unknown which is very appealing. In addition, the superstitious beliefs give the courage to believe. A superstitious person gets courage in believing that he/she is not responsible for what happens in life.
The human mind is powerful to influence the outlook and beliefs of a person. People believe in superstitions because they want to do it. However, superstitions of different cultures have different meanings. Superstitions are not scientifically tested, defy logic and cannot be proved. They simply require one to believe. The fallacies involved in superstition refer to an event, action or circumstance occurring because the cause happens before the expected effect. A simple fallacy refers to action A that occurs before action B or causes action B to occur. However, there is no any sufficient evidence to warrant such claim. Superstition is a fallacy because it lacks enough reasoning. Superstition leads to causal conclusion easily without evaluating and investigating the phenomenon which results are far from the truth. Sometimes the correlations in some superstitious beliefs are purely coincidental, but many people confuse them with causal. The scientific inquiry is necessary to prove the correlation of superstitions and identify the causal links. Post Hoc fallacy is the basis for superstitions because many people believe that events follow an order or patterns that are not related. With regards to Post Hoc fallacy, the evidence cannot justify the cause of any event. Superstitions are evident almost in every culture with different backgrounds and influence those who believe in them. A superstition is influenced by the environment and beliefs that one grows up with in the society.
Superstitious beliefs are based on myths, magic, or irrational thoughts and cannot be verified through the scientific means. The superstitious beliefs are rooted in the tradition and it is often difficult to prove their origin. It is worthy to note that most of the superstitions beliefs involve animals, graveyards, ghosts, or inanimate objects. Actually, this explains that a particular environment influences the superstitious beliefs. In addition, superstitions are associated with emotional sensitivity. In conclusion, people hold onto the superstitious beliefs because of many reasons. The superstitious beliefs are part of cultural heritage adopted by generations. However, they are based personal experiences and are unlikely to be discarded in the future.
