The difference: Superstition & religion.

[Unkotare]

No religion teaches to knock on wood for luck. ....

That comes from European pre-Christian indigenous religious beliefs.

 

[Karl Rand]

No religion teaches to knock on wood for luck. . . . . . . . . ".

How about saying the rosary?

 

[cnm]

A superstition is something in which you believe that you can't fully explain ... a religion is when you believe in something and have to make damn sure everyone else believes it also.

Like, for example, atheism.

A usual load.

 

[cnm]

As to atheism I’ve never understood why anyone why anyone wants to claim something they essentially see as meaningless as not existing. It’s one thing to assert the concept of a God/Gods is meaningless but quite another to claim that entity doesn’t exist.

Probably because you are conflating arguments.

 

[cnm]

When we define superstion as an irrational belief and religion as a reverence for God/Gods how do we know the difference - if there is any?

Both are unfounded beliefs.

unfounded said of allegations, ideas, rumours, etc: not based on fact; without foundation; groundless.​

superstition 1 belief in an influence that certain (especially commonplace) objects, actions or occurrences have on events, people's lives, etc. 2 a particular opinion or practice based on such belief. 3 any widely held but unfounded belief.

religion 1 a belief in, or the worship of, a god or gods. 2 a particular system of belief or worship, such as Christianity or Judaism. 3 colloq anything to which one is totally devoted and which rules one's life • mountaineering is his religion. 4 the monastic way of life.
​

 

[cnm]

Well now I would say this. When you say that you shouldn't walk under a ladder, where does that come from? Based on what?

Things like paint and hammers and bricks falling on people who walked under ladders. A very well founded belief.

 

[there4eyeM]

Well now I would say this. When you say that you shouldn't walk under a ladder, where does that come from? Based on what?

Things like paint and hammers and bricks falling on people who walked under ladders. A very well founded belief.

In this case not argued as "belief", but in analysis of observations reaching a conclusion. Saying, "it's bad luck to walk under ladders" is really a more poetic way of saying "there is gravity, stupid!".

 

[ding]

Well now I would say this. When you say that you shouldn't walk under a ladder, where does that come from? Based on what?

Things like paint and hammers and bricks falling on people who walked under ladders. A very well founded belief.

So are spiritual beliefs.

William James said, "We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life."

 

[cnm]

Or believing it's stupid to walk under ladders.

 

[cnm]

William James said, "We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life."

Who cares what he said? Seems unfounded to me, especially when the actions of 'spiritual' persons are examined.

 

[ding]

William James said, "We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life."

Who cares what he said? Seems unfounded to me.

No. It is William James opinion, man.

William James was a leading American psychologist and philosopher in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and had a major impact on the way we look at the mind, the body and the world.

https://www.biography.com/people/william-james-9352726

 

[Vastator]

Well now I would say this. When you say that you shouldn't walk under a ladder, where does that come from? Based on what?

Things like paint and hammers and bricks falling on people who walked under ladders. A very well founded belief.

In this case not argued as "belief", but in analysis of observations reaching a conclusion. Saying, "it's bad luck to walk under ladders" is really a more poetic way of saying "there is gravity, stupid!".

Luck is nothing more than taking chance personally...

 

[cnm]

No. It is William James opinion, man.

Ah. You don't agree with him? Don't blame you.

 

[cnm]

"there is gravity, stupid!"

Ah, gravity. Now that's something I believe in. Eeeeek...

 

[there4eyeM]

"there is gravity, stupid!"

Ah, gravity. Now that's something I believe in. Eeeeek...

Remember the "poetic" part of the quoted post!
"Gravity" is not entirely defined/understood, so is really just another noun for something we think we perceive without enough to back it up.

 

[ding]

No. It is William James opinion, man.

Ah. You don't agree with him? Don't blame you.

But I do, and he would know better than you.

 

[cnm]

Remember the "poetic" part of the quoted post!
"Gravity" is not entirely defined/understood, so is really just another noun for something we think we perceive without enough to back it up.

Believe me, I'm quite certain I perceived it. Many times. Eeeeek...

 

[cnm]

No. It is William James opinion, man.

Ah. You don't agree with him? Don't blame you.

But I do, and he would know better than you.

So then it is your opinion. Can you not even make up your mind about something simple like that?

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

But I do, and he would know better than you.

No he wouldn't. William James has no special access to divine wisdom, and neither do you. You sometimes get confused by your authoritarian religious culture and accidentally imply things are true because an authoritarian said them. You should make an effort to avoid this embarrassing error in the future, outside of bible study and church, where such specious nonsense is accepted as the norm.

 

[anynameyouwish]

A superstition is something in which you believe that you can't fully explain ... a religion is when you believe in something and have to make damn sure everyone else believes it also.

Like, for example, atheism.

atheism is a bad example. There are few atheists working to force people to be atheists. If you insist otherwise then I would expect actual examples and evidence and not just superstitious myths that you have embraced in your head. Repeating a limbaugh lie who repeated it from bill oreilly is NOT evidence. Even if ann coulter quoted both of them.

A better example would be islam or christianity, both of who have large subsets that work for dominion.