The atheist mindset

I've had lucky charms before now, although I tended to lose them, so I guess I can't have been too attached to them.

I suppose a willingness to believe in superstition is a religious trait, so it may well be less likely to appear amongst atheists, but at the same time, people are irrational in lots of different directions and I have no doubt but that some do touch wood, not walk under ladders, get confused as to whether the black cat is lucky or not and/or suddenly greet magpies who never look impressed by it.

I did once see seven magpies at once and picked up a £20 note while they were still whirling around overhead, so I kept that one up a bit longer!

"Touch wood" is one that I hear a lot, particularly connected to work and the likelihood of things going horribly wrong in the next twenty minutes. I hear that from believers, non-believers, one very-anti-religion and don't-carers. I think they're joking. Mostly. But given I will absolutely get the blame if I haven't touched wood and things DO go wrong (which is a continuous 50:50 chance it seems), I fall in with that one, even if I really do not see how a length of plasticated chipboard is going to prevent a machine break down across the room .

Samaris wrote: »

I've had lucky charms before now, although I tended to lose them, so I guess I can't have been too attached to them.

I suppose a willingness to believe in superstition is a religious trait, so it may well be less likely to appear amongst atheists, but at the same time, people are irrational in lots of different directions and I have no doubt but that some do touch wood, not walk under ladders, get confused as to whether the black cat is lucky or not and/or suddenly greet magpies who never look impressed by it.

I did once see seven magpies at once and picked up a £20 note while they were still whirling around overhead, so I kept that one up a bit longer!

"Touch wood" is one that I hear a lot, particularly connected to work and the likelihood of things going horribly wrong in the next twenty minutes. I hear that from believers, non-believers, one very-anti-religion and don't-carers. I think they're joking. Mostly. But given I will absolutely get the blame if I haven't touched wood and things DO go wrong (which is a continuous 50:50 chance it seems), I fall in with that one, even if I really do not see how a length of plasticated chipboard is going to prevent a machine break down across the room .

Its five or six magpies you need for money, 'seven is a secret never to be told'. So obviously that was coincidence!

looksee wrote: »

Its five or six magpies you need for money, 'seven is a secret never to be told'. So obviously that was coincidence!

One might have been a spray-painted sparrow?

oldrnwiser, you seem to be able to quote the bible pretty thoroughly! Isn't there mentions of superstition in the Bible, probably mostly talking about other religions and how one should reject them as evil ideologies, etc. Could that make for a division for Christian theists between their religion and the sorts of superstitions we're talking about? I don't entirely include "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (not least as it may well be a mistranslation), but witches tended to be seen as followers of Lucifer so they kinda get a pass as being included in the whole outlook.

I know they are all much the same manifestations of the same types of thing (the supernatural), but religion is very good at dealing with that sort of cognitive dissonance.

smacl wrote: »

And FWIW I know a number of atheists into the liked if reiki, homeopathy, crystal healing and various other nonsense and mumbo jumbo. While critical thinking might leave you less inclined to believe in the supernatural, the reverse does not hold. Not believing in a god doesn't make you a critical thinker.

Mooost of the hrm...non-Christians? Non-mainstream religion? people I know who are into crystal healing and all the rest of it tend, in my experience, to be quite religious, just of a mix of various types of religion often wrapped up in "Pagan", which I'd definitely not call atheist. Even the ones that don't specifically call it pagan, there seems to be hefty drawing from gods or goddesses (usually goddesses as most - but not all - of the people I know into that are female) of various different cultures.

I have so far refrained from asking how they can deal with the cognitive dissonance of worshipping Hecate, Isis, Epona and occasionally the Christian Mary at once.