Atheist Superstition?

I’ve been reading Carl Sagan’s The Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark – a terrific book that sheds a bright light on humanity’s history of superstitious thinking (ghosts, gods, UFOs, clairvoyance etc).

As if Sagan’s writing weren’t profound enough, today I learned of Bruce Hood’s Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable. The focus of the book is to ponder the reasons why we are superstitious – a look at everything from ghosts to lucky rabbits feet.

Although I haven’t read Supersense (I intend to), something in one of Mr. Hood’s interviews got me questioning whether I had any superstitious remnants left since shedding my belief in god.

Turns out I did – a rather big one. It surprised me since I thought I’d rid myself of all that.

About six years ago, my son fell of a ledge. The fall took place at one of my daughter’s dance recitals. Christopher was too full of energy to sit through the entire performance so I took him into the lobby area to work off some steam. He was just learning to walk so I watched him carefully and stayed close taking special note of the location of stairs.

But the danger was not with the stairs. The entire room was enclosed in glass topped with brass banister railings. These had been installed in six foot sections. What I didn’t know was that one of the glass sections was missing (it had broken and the facility neglected to replace it). As Christopher went from section to section, he would walk up, put his hands up and lean on the glass to look down to the floor below. Of course, when he got to the missing piece of glass, he toppled over the edge just as I was realizing the glass was missing. That moment was the most terrifying of my life as I watched, in utter horror, my son falling to his death …or so I thought.

It turned out there was a ledge just three feet down. He was bruised, but ok.

I was never the same. I had nightmares. The memory haunted me and I am sure I worried more than most parents probably worry about their kid’s safety.

To make matters worse, a few years later Christopher was admitted into the emergency ward for a mysterious locking up of his legs – he could not straighten his knees. After 12 hours in emergency, we were admitted to a room – in the children’s oncology ward. It was only several hours later when the nurses told me we were there because rooms were not available elsewhere. In other words, Christopher did not have Cancer. A few days later, Christopher’s knees just as mysteriously unlocked and we were sent home. He soon forgot about the ordeal. I did not.

To make matters even worse, almost exactly a year ago, Christopher was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic (the insulin for life variety). All of the emotions from Christopher’s fall and hospital stay re-surfaced and, as the emotions burst forth, I cried to my wife that, “I’ve always felt I would lose him”.

The feeling that I would one day lose my son was – my last truly superstitious thought – a heavy burden I carried for far too long.

I now realize that there is no reason why past experiences should translate into a superstition that has no basis in reality. The true reality is that there is NO reason for me to have this fear of the future.

This atheist is 100% done with superstition. Rationalism is firmly engrained in my psyche and I am now truly free.

You’ll have to excuse me now – I’m going to go shoot some hoops with my son.

me-chris

August 11, 2009 · Filed Under Atheism

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What God, Ghosts, Santa Clause & Other Imaginary Things Have In Common

I’ve heard (mostly from Christians) the accusation that atheists tend to replace Christianity with other forms of spirituality. Specifically, I’ve heard it said that we often believe in paranormal concepts such as ghosts, witchcraft, telepathy and past lives. The implication of these claims is that an atheist who believes in unproven paranormal stuff has no business being critical of people who believe in god.

Point taken. However, becoming an atheist didn’t affect me in that way at all. In fact, becoming an atheist was accompanied by a rejection of the paranormal. Why?

The answer is that becoming an atheist was an outcome of examining evidence and arguments for and against the existence of god. In other words, it was an act of dedication to critical thinking. Applying that same process to the paranormal led to the same outcome – I rejected all of those things.

I remember quite clearly how rejecting god was like pulling out the bottom of a house of cards – belief in the paranormal came tumbling down as well. Not only was there no god, but there were also no boogie men hiding in the dark. I’m not saying I used to believe in the paranormal but, when I began examining god more closely, I also examined the paranormal and stopped taking pseudo-science seriously.

My world changed practically overnight.

The Reverse Must Also Be True!

I’ve been watching my kids grapple with the imaginary stuff of the world. They want Santa to be real. They fear monsters under the bed. They think there are scary, wild things in the basement.

Why?

It’s my fault. Our fault. We parents of children. We adults of society. We teach our children that there are things – imaginary things – around us that we cannot see. We teach them that fairies come while they sleep to take fallen teeth. We teach them that a big, jolly magic man slides down the chimney to leave toys. We teach them that there’s a white-haired old man in the sky watching their every move, listening in on their every thought. We teach them that there are devils in the world trying to hurt and make people do bad things.

All this. All this teaches our children to be superstitious. It is the building up of the house of cards I just tore down in my own life.

Every time we teach a young child that there is something imaginary that they cannot see – that they cannot ever see, it opens their minds up to be superstitious in other areas. We provide a doorway for superstition to stay with our children into adulthood. Frankly, I’m surprised people aren’t more superstitious.

Ghosts, God, Santa Clause, Satan and the Tooth Fairy are all attacks on our ability to be rational and accept only what can be proven with evidence and critical thinking.

If I got to start over as a parent, I’d eliminate every imaginary thing. There would be no tooth fairy (but there would be fun around the loss of the tooth). There would be no Santa Claus (but there would be presents and an appreciation for life’s gifts). Imaginary things would be banished in my home based on the notion that imaginary things do real damage to a child ’s mind.

Imaginary things impede children from fully growing up…

…and that’s only a good thing if you’re Peter Pan.

December 14, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, family matters

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