Superstition is based on baseless fear

Superstition is the irrational interpretation of life by the savage mind. It is born of ignorance and fear and thrives the most where reason is asleep. The superstitious mind lacks balance. It makes a fool of the wise man.

Superstition bends its knees to gods and demons alike. It is the ignorant handmaid of religion. Religion is based on the reasoned belief in the eternal verities of life. Superstition, on the other hand, is the irrational belief in anything and everything. It is the surfeit of religion.

The mischief wrought by superstition is mostly confined to the ignorant and the people of feeble intelligence. Popular education is destined to give a death-blow to superstition. Yet often does it fail to kill it among persons in whom the superstitious habit of mind is strong and the caveman within them rules supreme. Many men and women with trained intellects find it difficult to free themselves from superstitious ideas indelibly engraved upon their imagination and superstitious fears implanted in their minds that are nursed upon superstition from infancy. Superstitious regard for lucky and unlucky days, for omens and portents, for signs and apparitions and the like cannot be discarded by them in the daily affairs of life.

Superstition encrusts religion with primitive beliefs of infant humanity and profanes its pristine purity. Religion carries the dead weight of the superstitious accretions.

I am sore afraid in my weakness, from the ghosts of my own imagination, that haunt me and rob me of the peace of my mind. I Fear the foes that have no existence outside my imagination. Superstition makes me timid and fatalistic and drives me to bow my head and bend my knees to gods that are no gods.

Thus have I been disloyal to thee, Ahura Mazda, my only true God. I have been ungrateful to thee; I have lied unto thee. In my folly have I shown a lack of confidence in thee and thy unfailing power to protect me against all the ills of life. I repent and seek thy forgiveness, O Merciful One.

Direct my faltering feet back to thee. Be thou my strength when weakness and fear oppress me and threaten to overpower me. I am safe under thy protecting wing. I find no rest save in thee. Strengthen my faith in thee. Let my devotion for thee fill my whole being, that I may worship thee and thee alone, Ahura Mazda.

This page was last updated on Friday, February 11, 2005.