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

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

"what if the "longing for connection" that some people feelin in regards to their spiritual drives isn't much more than the unresolved emotional longings from childhood seperation anxiety?
Need for human love that went unfulfilled that gets interp. as "I feel a longing for something more, therefore there must be something more"."

Wow. There's food for thought for me personally.

[herbalgrrl.livejournal.com]

It might serve to explain the prevalence of religion (most humans are raised in fairly dysfunctional families that might engender a wish for connection with the perfect parent- all powerful & all seeing means never having to fear Nobodaddy will abandon you or might be *wrong*. It also explains why so many projections about Nobodaddy paint him as an abusive monster-- it's the only model of parenthood that too many people have to work from.)