SUPERSTITION. Superstition is a judgmental term traditionally used by dominant religions to categorize and denigrate earlier, less sophisticated or disapproved religious attitudes and behavior. A belief is perceived as superstitious by adherents of a...

In trying to understand the world, mankind has created many superstitions and myths that have slowly led to what we consider modern science. For example, alchemy, the attempt to change other materials into gold, helped establish important principles of...

belief, half-belief, or practice for which there appears to be no rational substance. Those who use the term imply that they have certain knowledge or superior evidence for their own scientific, philosophical, or religious convictions. An ambiguous...

Folk customs and practices not accepted by a religion’s elite, who determine the religion’s official content. In Judaism, as in other religions, superstitions are often related to extra-religious powers or to spiritual experience and...

A term used to describe the inadvertent acquisition of a response, such as lever pressing, that is not productive or meaningful. Animals trained on random SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT will often show superstitious behaviours, and certain brain lesions...

Credulity about supernatural beliefs. Although the *Bible forbids all forms of magic and many later theologians have condemned such beliefs as nonsense, many superstitions have persisted in folk...

Superstition is a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like. Dictionary Definition: Religion, Opinion or practice based on belief in...