I'm kind of superstitious about things. Are you?

[Heddi]

It's so silly and I know it's silly and I can't rectify it or explain it or rationlize it. I know it's a ridiculous thing, but it's a ridiculous thing I can't rid myself of.

Now, it's not like I'm going to run screaming in the other direction if a black cat comes struttin' down the street. Heck, I love cats, and have often wondered how people who own black cats reconcile that "don't let them cross your path" thing since I know my cats purposefully look for my path to cross. Especially if I'm laden with heavy things. THen they're TOTALLY CROSSING THAT FUCKING PATH.

Spilling salt...oooh. no. fuck that. Spilling salt and I have to take a pinch and throw it over the shoulder. I worked at a restaurant once and my coworker knocked over a box..A BOX..of kosher salt. Salt went everywhere. I swear I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. Finally I couldn't help it and when they weren't looking I took a pinch and threw it over my shoulder. CRISIS AVERTED.

I'm hetchy about walking under a ladder...not for bad luck, but I find it to be generally unsafe. I don't like walking under scalfolding for the same reason.

I get a hinky feeling if, upon leaving the house I have to turn around and go back in. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do for that one...count backwards or something, but that seems OCD, so I don't do anything to "rectify" the bad luck, I just spend the rest of my day wondering what bad luck can come from having to go back inside after just leaving.

Working in an ER, I know the power of a full moon. I don't pay attention to the moon...half moon, waxing moon...no idea what the state of the moon is but I can tell you with 100% certainty when it's a full moon. Full moon on Friday 13th? Give me a fucking day off.

And none of this makes sense. I know it doesn't. To believe that spilt salt makes for bad luck would mean there's a..."thing" that's watching for spilled salt and taking names of those who don't pay proper respect by tossing a speck over teh shoulder.

It makes no sense. I know this. But I cannot bring myself to let spilt salt lie without correcting it. I don't like returning to the house just as I leave on a trip....

I surely can't be the only superstitious atheist out there, can I? or Am I

[onager]

1. Well, I do have this one quirk...

Where I sometimes believe inanimate objects are not only sentient - they're out to get me.

These objects include most power tools, the TV cable box, the whole Internet...and that damn vacuum cleaner that tries to trip me and kill me every time I drag it up/down the stairs.

I was sitting on an airplane once, waiting to take off, and the woman beside me asked if I would pray with her for a safe flight.

Told her I didn't pray, and on airplane flights I am more worried about physics than metaphysics. Mercifully, that seemed to confuse her and she left me alone.

[Warpy]

2. The full moon is a big deal if you work in medicine

The number of crazies might stay about the same, which studies have shown, but they are far crazier during the full moon than they are three days or so before or after it.

Returning to the house after just having left it is something I do and it's usually because some part of my brain is screaming at me that there is something I've forgotten. When I go back in, I generally notice what it is rather quickly.

I don't know how much of it is superstition and how much is experience. I do know that stepping on a cat who is insistent on crossing your path close to your ankles is an unpleasant experience, especially for the cat.

[Brainstormy]

3. Not superstitious but

I sometimes hear a little warning voice in my head, probably my grandmother's, when I do something that has a common superstition surrounding it--walk under ladders, don't throw spilt salt, step on cracks, etc. It's just childhood conditioning. Much like religion. But I'm very deliberate about not giving in to superstitions and so far, so good. And I was born on the 13th, so that's worked out OK, too.

I really amazes me though that religious people (like my grandmother) can be simultaneously superstitious. I mean, the big guy in the sky's in charge, right? Would he re-arrange things if you don't throw the salt back over your shoulder? The best thing about being an atheist is that you can let go of ALL that supernatural nonsense.

[PassingFair]

4. Lucky pennies.

I ALWAYS pick up change I see lying on the ground.
It goes into the pocket of whatever coat I am wearing.

I consider that lucky money.
It becomes TWICE AS lucky when I
can spend it.

My pockets always have crappy looking, weather-exposed coins in them.

[LostOne4Ever]

5. I don't know if you would call it superstitious

But I always have to steel my nerves whenever I buy stuff at a store and then have to walk out by the anti-theft detectors. I know I have paid for my stuff and it won't go off, but I still am convinced its going to go off and attract attention to me.

When I have family with me I have them hold the stuff for me, but when I am alone I have to literally sit there and go "you bought your stuff, and they scanned it, it won't go off."

I think this has more to do with me experiencing severe social anxiety than being superstitious though.

Beyond that, I am a total skeptic.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I give no credit to any superstitions.

With that said, I do remember the superstitions, and I do have a moment of anxiety when something first happens, like if I were to break a mirror.....I would do a bigger "oh shit" than just because I have a mess to clean up. But then I just forget about it the next minute. I actually don't know most of the superstitions, or what I am supposed to do about them---with salt, is it left shoulder or right shoulder, or does it matter? If I used the wrong shoulder, would that reverse all the evil that is coming my way? And what is the problem with returning to the house after leaving? That is a new one on me....lucky for me, since I am always forgetting something and going back into the house. So far, I am alive and doing well enough.

I think that looking into what started some of the superstitions in the first place is a good first step to getting over them. The black cat is always associated with witches and devil worship, so if you just think of how silly that is, you will see that this black cat coming at you is not really doing the work of the devil.

And the superstition about spilled salt being bad luck comes from a time when salt was a very expensive commodity, and you did not want to waste it......now why you would then intentionally throw some grains away over your shoulder is beyond me, but I can't explain any of these rituals.

But so what if you have to throw spilled salt over your shoulder. What harm is there in doing that? Nothing.

[Vashta Nerada]

7. No.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. I'm not superstitious.

My daughter, who has adopted some individual brand of pantheism, is though. She hasn't met a superstition she doesn't put stock in or a conspiracy theory too outrageous to be believed. I keep hoping she'll outgrow this phase. She's 30-something. It's possible.

[awoke_in_2003]

19. Though I didn't attend church...

I was a believer at the age of 30. Some of us take longer- there is hope.

[LiberalAndProud]

20. I was too.

I also think I was immersed in reading books like The Sleeping Prophet around that age, so I continue to hope. I don't think there's anything wrong with believing that "everything is God" in some kind of mystical, interconnected way. However, when that leads to life planning by astrology, prophesying by numerology and burning snow, I find it annoying.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. No. But sometimes I fail.

[defacto7]

10. No...

I have pretty much done away with superstitions by walking directly into everything that is not logical. Even as a kid, if I was with someone who was superstitious I just did the superstitious thing on the spot and even repeated it just for the sake of proving it wrong. Nothing unusual has ever happened.

That said, I think there is no harm in having rituals just for ritual sake if it makes one feel better. Just know that it is ritual. I suppose most superstitions are memory related. If we relate an act to a memory, whether that memory is from an actual event or because someone told you there was an outcome from that act AND you relate that to fear, our brain will put those things together as a possible solution to the unknown. Fear will make the memory stick because that's how the brain problem solves dangerous situations. I think it's very ancient and absolutely normal as long as it's not so obsessive that it bothers your performance or makes you panic. If you need to do away with it for any reason, just face it down and prove to yourself it means nothing.

As far as the moon's concerned, there are a few of theories about that that are somewhat logical. I think the moon is probably another ancient fear that has become genetically implanted. When the moon is bright, all creatures were more vulnerable to attack and that probably goes back a couple hundred million years. So if people get crazy on a full moon, again it's probably another protection/predatory fear. At least that's what I think.

[TxDemChem]

11. I'm not superstitious, but I sometimes have a brief moment

where I'm reminded of what my old, theist self would have said years ago. This week, my boss was making racist comments about Middle Easterners and I thought to myself, "I hope that bitch falls down the stairs and breaks her leg." A few seconds later, I thought that I may have given myself bad karma. Then a few more seconds later, I laughed since I no longer believe in karma and that bitch really should fall down the stairs. Not to kill her of anything, but to maim her just a bit.

[Heddi]

14. I'll wish horrible things on people, but I don't like wishing death

It's silly, because it's hardly like I have a direct line to Death's ear 'oh, heddi said kill that shitty driver. Okay..."

But like "I wish that asshole would get lice!" "I hope you have a case of herpes so raging your asshole falls off."
Things like that. Unpleasantries, but nothing that will kill a person.

[TxDemChem]

15. I think those unpleasantries are okay.

And while I'd never intentionally harm anyone, I would have no pity if misfortune happens upon an evil person. Shit happens to everyone. Some people just don't deserve the sympathy.

Just realized I should explain evil: My company makes products that are used to deter diseases spread by pests. At a meeting a few years back, she made comments that we shouldn't sell our products in the Middle East or Africa. We should just let all those people, including innocent children, die.

[RebelOne]

12. I am a bit superstitious about my ankh ring.

It is a symbol of life. My ring has become so dented and bent that I can't get it off my finger. I don't want it cut off because I am afraid that would mean my life will be over soon.

[Heddi]

13. My uncle, who was an atheist, had a Tiger Ring

It was a silver ring with turquoise. He said it was his Tiger Ring. I would ask "why is it called a tiger ring?" and he said as long as he wore the ring, there wouldn't be any tigers nearby. I said NUH UH! UNCLE BOBBY YOU'RE SILLY! and he'd look at me with those blue eyes and say real low "you don't see any tigers, do you?" and then he'd start to take it off NO UNCLE BOBBY PUT IT BACK ON!!!!

He was the first non-believer I knew. I think some of his skepticism about church, beliefs, religion rubbed off on me at a young age.

[AlbertCat]

16. Superstitions....

religion is just ancient superstitions worked into a kind of government.


Anyway, I remember many and enjoy the fact that they have no power whatsoever when one comes up.

[Lordquinton]

17. Officially no

But I do like to have some fun with little ideas that I think would be cool, or just make my little life a little more fun.

[AtheistCrusader]

18. I have none.

In fact, I find opportunities when I engage where others won't for fear of superstition. For instance, doing something on Friday the 13th, or whatever.

Things happen. If you look hard enough you'll find patterns and ways to correlate it to things, but it's just (in my opinion) noise. Mostly generated by leftover evolutionary survival code, that lets us recognize threats hidden in noise. (The tiger in the shadows of some reeds, for instance)

We are apex predators, but we have also been winnowed by other predators, and by selection, that builds skills and mental hardwiring for survival. What you are seeing, or believe there, is perfectly normal, and seems perfectly healthy as long as you can still go about your business no problems. But it's illusory.

[Jgarrick]

21. Not in the slightest.