Good reasons we have superstitions

The pre-scientific mind struggles to make sense of the world around us. You can see it in infants, puppies and kittens as they look for patterns to guide their existence.Anthropologists will tell you it is what caused primitive man to see superstition in ordinary things around us. As the sun set in winter, seemingly not to come up as far and as warm each day, there came a point when primitive man thought to encourage the sun to rise again, rise higher and bring back warmth to his valley. Having discovered fire, he lit a tree ablaze and over the next millennia, this tradition stuck, around the end of what we call December, and — what do you know — the sun got a little higher each morning after that. End result? A good tradition morphed over the years to become a pagan tradition to ward off the cold. and then later Christianity combined it with Christ’s birthday (which, if Jewish, Roman and Christian historians are correct is actually in April) and it became a brilliantly lit Christmas’ tree.In seriously northern climates, they did a fire dance when the sun showed no more around Dec. 20 and kept it up until Mr. Sun decided on Jan. 6 to peep over the horizon. Once Mr. Sun was there again, they knew spring would come. On the other part of the planet, down south, the Aborigines have a late June sun festival to thank the sun for giving them a break from the heat.Sometimes superstition comes about at random. B. F. Skinner conducted tests with pigeons that got a reward every time a bell rang, and he rang the bell at regular intervals. This is called reinforcement in behavioral theory (science, really). Ring a bell and you get a treat. Then he stopped ringing the bell at regular intervals and the pigeons developed weird behavior. Some were scratching and watching the bell, some were flapping and watching the bell, and so on.What had happened was this: when the bell rang intermittently, the pigeons correlated their current actions ­— scratch that itch — with a call to have the bell ring and get food. So the next phase was to pick a pigeon in a flock who scratched and when the pigeon did that, he rang the bell and the whole flock fed. Pretty soon, all the pigeons were scratching to get the bell to ring.On the other hand, superstition can save your life. If primitive man was walking through a forest and saw a shadow move and the next thing he knew he was unconscious, he only had to survive once to always fear shadows and warn his tribe. Shadows became ominous; they could be that monster about to kill you. You survived once, but the second time you may not be so lucky. Nevermind that the shadow didn’t do it, nor a monster — it may have been a neighboring warrior fearing you. The fact that a shadow would always scare you after that could be a life saver. Certainly the shadow can’t really hurt, but what causes the shadow could. Without the scientific rationale of what a shadow really is, it was better be safe than sorry. This is called superstitious association.Superstition is often like that. It works. It helped mankind evolve. However, evolution, even with superstition, is never still. It always evolves. The next time you feel the urge to do something part of your brain is saying is irrational, ask yourself if it is time to amend your ways and evolve just a little. That pinch of spilled salt over your left shoulder warding off the devil? Really? The current catechism of the Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be a sin, yet some of the rituals Catholics employ came straight out of the superstition arena. Crossing yourself as a reminder of your savior is hardly superstition, but crossing yourself to merely ward off bad luck at a slot machine?Superstition has nothing to do with belief, but often they get cobbled together by organized religion — like the Christmas tree — for purposes of controlling the faithful. In its time that had purpose and reason. Nowadays, no one really associates Christ with a tree ablaze with light. The season, the religious practice, yes, but the actual tree? Yet a pagan superstition persists as cultural habit.That’s what eventually happens to most superstitions — they become cultural events or objects. Celtic pagan symbols become jewelry, a mini-Torah becomes door adornment (mezuzah), often with jewels. All this is OK, just as long as evolved humans realize that a burning tree really doesn’t bring back the sun any quicker. Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.