the "disbelief is a belief" question again

[sophiaserpentia]

Does it take faith to disbelieve that breaking a mirror is bad luck? What about not believing that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck?

If not, how is this different from the same question applied to God?

If yes, what distinguishes a "valid" superstition like the ones listed above from "invalid" ones like the Flying Spaghetti Monster? What about supersititions from other cultures, like the belief that taking a picture steals your soul?

Is the difference that people in this culture were exposed since early childhood to believe in the superstitions listed above?

Comments

[mysticphyre.livejournal.com]

The examples of superstition you site seem to be egocentric, based around something you do and seem to focus more on the reasons bad things happen. Although, in some older texts, due to the perception of their reality at the time both good and bad things were attributed to God. IE; a tribe attacked and slaughtered them because they strayed from the words of God or lacked faith.

Faith as in God usually is based on experiences or experiences of another, or something greater than yourself.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Most superstitions seek to explain bad things that happen which would otherwise be senseless. The crops failed? Oh, we must have angered the gods!

[mysticphyre.livejournal.com]

Exactly :D

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I think it is an interesting theological question to ponder what remains of God if we disallow (rhetorically speaking) the supernatural as a source of malady.

[mysticphyre.livejournal.com]

I think what remains is the aspirations to become better human beings, more God-like, more Christ-like. To embrace grace, compassion, and justice which are at the core of all major theologies before "humans" started adding their interpetions of God from a human perspective. We all get the message that God/dess created the world and us perfectly, there was a change/separation/choice that hid/denied us that knowledge, and somewhere in our souls we long to go home or "thy kingdom come on earth".