No Sacred Cows

by David G. McAfee

  Knowing why humans behave this way is crucial. In order to better promote rational thinking and nonreliance on false sciences and paranormal explanations, it helps to better understand the phenomenon of superstition as it presents itself in various people and cultures. But superstition isn’t unique to people—it’s present in other animals, too. In fact, American psychologist and behaviorist B. F. Skinner showed that even lab pigeons exhibited similar behavior.30 Skinner placed a number of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic food delivery system that sent food at various times regardless of the bird’s actions. He found that the pigeons associated the coming of the food with whatever activities they were performing at the time, in much the same way humans might associate a prayer with a promotion at work. The test subjects invented their own rituals and repeated them based on the misconception that they were bringing the food. This is not unlike what we see in people, for instance, when a baseball player decides to wear his “lucky socks” every time he plays just because of that one home run he hit while wearing them.31 Comedian and TV host Steve Allen succinctly described how, once belief in a superstition like prayer is established, it is further perpetuated rather easily. “If you pray for rain long enough, it eventually does fall,” he said. “If you pray for floodwaters to abate, they eventually do. The same happens in the absence of prayers.”

  Luck—the ultimate superstition—has been described by American illusionist Penn Jillette and others as “statistics [or probability] taken personally.” In other words, luck—good or bad—is how we interpret events in our life. Statistically, some people (and even objects) are guaranteed to have more positive interactions than others because that is the nature of coincidence—and it works the other way, too, with negative experiences. In addition to that, our pattern-seeking minds have the ability and inclination to count hits and discount misses.32 In some ways, the human brain is actually primed to reach and reinforce false conclusions (usually as some sort of mental shortcut), and many people take advantage of that fact when it comes to the perception of luck and to pseudoscience in general.33

  Once our minds are made up that particular people, items, or actions bring beneficial results or are inherently “lucky,” we tend to become more positive34 and notice more events perceived as good luck (see chapter 7). The same thing happens with bad luck. A good example of this is the Friday the 13th superstition.35 Friday the 13th (and the number 13 in general) is considered a bad omen in many cultures—so much so that it has spawned a series of horror films, resulted in increased rates of triskaidekaphobia (defined as a fear of the number 13), and even caused building owners to exclude the 13th floor from their construction plans36—but it’s also considered by some to be good luck. Is there any truth to the bad-luck myth? Probably not. There is conflicting data,37 but a 2008 study by the Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics (CVS) actually showed that fewer reports of traffic accidents, fires, and theft occurred on Friday the 13th dates than on other Fridays.38 Could it be because people are more careful those days, or that they just stay at home? No matter the reason, as Alex Hoen, a CVS statistician, notes, “Statistically speaking, driving is a little bit safer on Friday 13th..”

  The Friday the 13th superstition is thought to have Christian origins, with some experts suggesting the myth is based on religious beliefs surrounding the 13th guest at the last supper—Judas.39 This is particularly relevant considering the fact that religious believers often exhibit similar behavior as those who believe in good and bad luck, especially as it relates to symbolic trinkets, markings, blessings, curses, and even statues.

  WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE?

  The supernatural in general is appealing to many people for a lot of different reasons, but one of the keys is the unknown factor. We humans fear the unknown, which causes us to create heavens, hells, ghosts, reincarnation schemes, and more to save us from the greatest mystery of all: death. As Bertrand Russell wrote in his 1957 work entitled Why I Am Not a Christian, “It is not rational arguments, but emotions, that cause belief in a future life. The most important of these emotions is fear of death.” So, that fear is there and it contributes to belief in certain supernatural concepts, but we are also creative thrill-seekers who crave the unknown because the potential itself is interesting and exciting.40 This leads us to invent aliens, psychics, and paranormal monsters of all kinds. For me, the key—the happy medium—is to be able to indulge our interest in these inherently mind-stimulating topics without having to actually believe they are real.

  A great number of urban legends, bad-luck charms, and other superstitions are at least partially the result of various societies’ attempts to control their populations’ behavior through fear-based myths—and religions are no different. Today, most nations have comprehensive law enforcement and a judicial system, but that wasn’t true in ancient times. Faith-based institutions were responsible for some of the first written legal codes, justice systems, and more, and for those to be successful the believers needed to be fearful of something much larger and more powerful than themselves. Whether it’s fear of the unknown or fear of losing something valuable, fright is a powerful force that compels a lot of superstitious behavior. Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was an Indian philosopher and writer, described its role in the process quite well. He is quoted as saying, “Fear is the destructive energy in man. It withers the mind, it distorts thought, it leads to all kinds of extraordinarily clever and subtle theories, absurd superstitions, dogmas, and beliefs.”

  While some argue there is an upside to fear,41 that positive spin isn’t often present when fear is mixed with important decision-making. For example, in the United States, scared travelers chose to fly less and drive more after the attacks of September 11, 2001, which killed almost 3,000 people. As a result of this shift to the more statistically dangerous method of transportation, Professor Gerd Gigerenzer, a German psychologist specializing in risk, estimates that an extra 1,595 Americans died in car accidents in the year following the tragedy.42

  Fear and hope are just two emotions that can make some people believe in all sorts of unsupported ideas from a variety of sources, including holy books, conspiracy theory websites, and everything in between. But the good news is that an education in rationality, critical analysis, and evidence-based thinking is the cure for all of these faulty beliefs and the lapses in proper logic that cause them. Whether it’s out of a deep-seated need to believe in something great and unknown or indoctrination akin to strict childhood religious instruction, people flock to all sorts of unsubstantiated claims as realities. Most of the time, this results in people convincing themselves (and others) that there’s something supernatural when a natural explanation has always sufficed. It’s true that, in some cases, we simply don’t have a definitive answer and must be content with saying, “I don’t know.” Other times, however, things are already explained sufficiently and believers continue to assume the presence of mysterious forces due to their own misunderstandings of the subject or the underlying facts. The bottom line is that, whether you believe in end-of-the-world prophecies, an all-powerful Illuminati, or the inerrancy of the Bible, you exhibit the same lack of critical thinking and blatant disregard for evidence. Religion, pseudoscientific claims, and all faith-based ideas thrive on the same weaknesses in normal human thinking, making critical thought the most important tool.

  Over many thousands of generations, humans have invented witches, demons, and all sorts of nonnatural entities—usually in an attempt to explain what was at the time considered to be unexplainable. But what was unexplainable in those times may not be so now; something that is unknown isn’t always unknowable. Many concepts that were once mysteries are now well understood as a result of rigorous testing, scientific inquiry, and observation over time. As our scientific understanding has evolved, we have learned, for instance, that it isn’t demonic possession that causes illness, nor is it a god, angel, or spirit that prompts recoveries. Similarly, each of the billions of asserted supernatural cl
aims throughout our long history—in every recorded case—has been shown to have a possible (and therefore more probable) natural explanation. This evolution of thought is exactly why most humans no longer pray to a Sun God, a God of the Sea, or a God of Love. The gaps in our knowledge that all gods and superstitions occupy are being filled up with every new discovery and with every new scientific breakthrough. It might be easier to pretend to know that gods, aliens, or ghosts are the cause of a particular action or event, but by understanding history we can see it’s more honest to continue searching for the real answer.

  “My practice as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world.”

  —J. B. S. Haldane

  NOTES

  1. To be more precise, I’d say religions are belief systems that often incorporate hundreds or even thousands of different superstitions.

  2. Kevin Schilbrack, “The Social Construction of ‘Religion’ and Its Limits: A Critical Reading of Timothy Fitzgerald,” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 24 (2012): 97–117.

  3. Steven Pinker, “The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion,” presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

  4. “2014 Religious Landscape Study,” Pew Research Center, conducted June 4–September 30, 2014.

  5. David Freed and Idrees Kahloon, “Religion,” Harvard Crimson, March 12, 2016, features.thecrimson.com/2015/freshman-survey/lifestyle/.

  6. “ ‘Nones’ on the Rise,” Pew Research Center, October 8, 2012, www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/.

  7. When asked to give a one-sentence definition of mythology, comparative mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell said, “Mythology is what we call someone else’s religion.”

  8. Christopher Hitchens, “God Is Not Great,” acceptance speech for 2007 Emperor Has No Clothes Award presented by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

  9. Steven V. Roberts, “White House Confirms Reagans Follow Astrology, Up to a Point,” New York Times, May 3, 1988, www.nytimes.com/1988/05/04/us/white-house-confirms-reagans-follow-astrology-up-to-a-point.html.

  10. Jerry A. Coyne, “Why Scientists Have No Faith in Science,” Slate, November 14, 2013, www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/11/faith_in_science_and_religion_truth_authority_and_the_orderliness_of_nature.html.

  11. Paul Bloom, “Scientific Faith Is Different from Religious Faith,” Atlantic, November 24, 2015,http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/why-scientific-faith-isnt-the-same-as-religious-faith/417357/.

  12. “Faith,” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000).

  13. “Faith,” Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/faith.

  14. “Faith,” Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/faith.

  15. “Faith,” Oxford Dictionaries, www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/faith.

  16. Other descriptions of Christian faith in the Bible can be found in 2 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Corinthians 2:5, and more.

  17. Blaise Pascal, a Christian philosopher, is also quoted as saying, “Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.”

  18. This maxim is akin to Hitchens’s Razor, “What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (New York: Twelve Books, 2007), 150..

  19. “Superstition,” Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superstitions.

  20. Kevin R. Foster and Hanna Kokko, “The Evolution of Superstitious and Superstition-like Behaviour,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 276, no. 1654 (2009): 31–37.

  21. Ewen Callaway, “Superstitions Evolved to Help Us Survive,” New Scientist, September 10, 2008, www.newscientist.com/article/dn14694-superstitions-evolved-to-help-us-survive.html#.Ud16TfnVBsk.

  22. Matthew 21:20–22: “When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. ‘How did the fig tree wither so quickly?’ they asked. Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.’”

  23. Kevin S. Masters, Glen I. Spielmans, and Jason T. Goodson, “Are There Demonstrable Effects of Distant Intercessory Prayer? A Meta-analytic Review,” Annals of Behavioral Medicine 32, no. 1 (2006): 21–26.

  24. Leviticus 19:31: “Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead. I am the LORD your God.”

  25. 1 Samuel 15:23: “Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”

  26. Exodus 22:18: “Do not allow a sorceress to live.”

  27. Jonathan C. Smith, Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker’s Toolkit (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2011).

  28. Sarah Marsh, “In Land of Pachamama, Bolivians Hope for Pope of ‘Good Intentions,’” Reuters, July 5, 2015, www.reuters.com/article/us-popelatam-bolivia-idUSKCN0PE0E920150705>.

  29. Reversing one’s fortune by pushing away bad luck. Yan Zhang, Jane L. Risen, and Christine Hosey, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, no 3 (June 2014): 1171–1184.

  30. B. F. Skinner, “‘Superstition’ in the Pigeon,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 38, no. 2 (April 1948): 168–172.

  31. This is not to say, however, that all baseball players exhibit superstitious behavior. Babe Ruth famously said, “I have only one superstition. I touch all the bases when I hit a home run.”

  32. “The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.”—Francis Bacon

  33. Helena Matute, Ion Yarritu, and Miguel A. Vadillo, “Illusions of Causality at the Heart of Pseudoscience,” British Journal of Psychology 102, no. 3 (2011): 392–405.

  34. Darke, Peter R., and Jonathan L. Freedman. “Lucky events and beliefs in luck: Paradoxical effects on confidence and risk-taking.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23, no. 4 (1997): 378-388.

  35. The fear of Friday the 13th is known as “paraskevidekatriaphobia.”

  36. “My hotel doesn’t have a 13th Floor because of superstition, but c’mon man … people on the 14th floor, you know what floor you’re really on. ‘What room are you in?’ ‘1401.’ ‘No, you’re not. Jump out of window, you’ll die earlier!’”—Mitch Hedberg

  37. C. D. O’Brien, “Friday the 13th: Doubly Unlucky,” British Medical Journal 308, no. 6926 (1994): 473.

  38. Tineke Van Der Struik, “Friday 13th Not More Unlucky, Dutch Study Shows,” Reuters, June 13, 2008, uk.reuters.com/article/us-luck-idUKL1268660720080613>.

  39. John Roach, “Friday the 13th Phobia Rooted in Ancient History,” National Geographic News, August 12, 2004.

  40. Eduardo B. Andrade and Joel B. Cohen, “On the Consumption of Negative Feelings,” Journal of Consumer Research 34, no. 3 (2007): 283–300.

  41. Maggie Penman, “Things That Go Bump in The Lab: Halloween And The Science Of Fear,” NPR, October 27, 2015. www.npr.org/2015/10/27/450911424/things-that-go-bump-in-the-lab-halloween-and-the-science-of-fear.

  42. James Ball, “September 11’s Indirect Toll: Road Deaths Linked to Fearful Flyers,” Guardian, September 5, 2011, www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/05/september-11-road-deaths.

  4

  BLURRED LINES BETWEEN ATHEISM AND SKEPTICISM

  “I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how
wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”

  —Isaac Asimov

  You can believe in any claim in the whole entire world, except for the existence of gods, and still be an atheist. But if you are an atheist who hangs on to other irrational beliefs that don’t hold water when met with serious inquiry, you aren’t likely to be a skeptic, a naturalist, or a science-minded person in general.

  Atheists have one thing in common: disbelief in deities (for any reason). This means that an atheist can believe in ghosts, psychics, witchcraft, homeopathy, unsubstantiated global conspiracy theories, and other superstitious, paranormal, and nonsensical claims, and still, in fact, be an atheist. You can be an atheist who believes in any number of nondivine supernatural things, but you can’t be a scientific skeptic—someone who bases belief on empirical research—or a naturalist—someone who disbelieves in supernatural or spiritual forces in general.

  Being an atheist doesn’t make anyone a clearheaded and rational thinker, but, fortunately for us, there is hope. By promoting skepticism of all things unfounded and contrary to the scientific method, we can encourage the search for reality while helping to establish freedom from all magical thinking. And by advocating for rationality and logical reasoning, we can directly combat things like religion in government, prejudice and discrimination, and anything else that doesn’t withstand scrutiny. Jennifer Hancock, a writer and speaker specializing in humanistic leadership, points out that critical thinking is “not just for debunking religion.” Applied skepticism can benefit every aspect of your life, including medicine, marketing, politics, pseudoscience, theological nonscience, and interpersonal relationships, she says.