Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. He will believe in witchcraft and sorcery, even though he may otherwise be a heretic, an atheist, and a rebel.”, “The general root of superstition : namely, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.”, “We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.”, “The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.”, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West, The Works Of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. It's a battle you can't hope to win - it's a battle that's going to go on forever.

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. It is almost like a superstition for me. A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. It crushes where it cannot expand—it burns where it is not allowed to shine. We never use them in phrases such as: There is democracy.

Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. The devil divides the world between atheism and superstition. Address to the Indian Institute of Science. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. A prohibition that comes from a superstition. I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition. Science would have us believe that such accuracy, leading to certainty, is the only criterion of knowledge, would make the trial of Galileo the paradigm of the two points of view which aspire to truth, would suggest, that is, that the cardinals represent only superstition and repression, while Galileo represents freedom. We have passed midnight in the great struggle between Fact and Faith, between Science and

Science is our favorite modern superstition. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.”, “Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! If proper theoretical explanations are given to superstitions, then the superstition of today may become the science of tomorrow. Quoted by Sean O’Hagan, in 'End of sperm report'. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. This is the one piece of dogmatism that a scientist can allow himself—and without it science would be in danger of giving way to superstition every time that a problem defied solution for a few years. In the study of ideas, it is necessary to remember that insistence on hard-headed clarity issues from sentimental feeling, as it were a mist, cloaking the perplexities of fact. It’s no more sacred than your toenails. In every sphere, we seem to have lost the very elements of intelligence: the ideas of limit, measure, degree, proportion, relation, comparison, contingency, interdependence, interrelation of means and ends. I am finicky about making sure my sneakers are pretty tight. We might get away with it for a while, but eventually this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. Evolution doesn't care whether you believe in it or not, no more than gravity does.

I think my favorite song from another artist would have to be 'Superstition' by Stevie Wonder. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music. I would go to the temple with my grandmother and mother.