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

[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".