After so many different types of superstitious people that I described in the past days, there is still one left:
The superstitious Scientist, Doctor or similarly academic Person
The type of person that I will describe today is the one whom I would blame most of all for spreading stupid superstitions even further than they are already spread: those people who have proof that it is wrong but nevertheless believe in it and even openly show it. These people have spent many years of their lives on researching how the world really works, on learning about the reasons behind the ‘miracles’ that superstition tried to explain, on helping others using this knowledge. They are doctors, they are scientists, they have been to university or college and they know more about the mysteries of life than the average person whom you meet on the street. Still, they cling to superstition!
There are endless examples for literate people with high education who follow superstition. If we start with the doctors, you can very often see signs against evil energies at the main entrance door of their practices. In hospitals there are signs saying ‘We serve, he cures’. Many doctors don’t work on Thursdays, as they believe it is a bad day for people to go to the doctor – they might have to come back, because actions on Thursdays always are repeated.
To me this seems as though doctors themselves don’t have enough confidence in medical science. If people get even worse while in their care they will probably blame bad energies and recommend some rituals, too! Maybe this gives confidence to superstitious people but for me, personally, it makes me trust the abilities of the doctor a bit less – if he relies on superstition to cure his patients and blames God’s anger for diseases instead of lack of hygiene for example, I would feel strange to take treatment of him! And to be honest, I feel a lot Indian doctors should stop finding superstitious explanations for problems and instead focus on medical facts – for example that diseases spread much easier in dirty places which would be a reason to clean their clinics better!
Doctors are not the only academic people however who surprise with their superstition! Scientists of the ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation, visit India’s biggest temple before each and every rocket launch to pray for success – bringing a mini replica of the rocket which will be launched, probably so that God knows what they are talking about.
Another superstition is shown in the naming of their rockets: there is a PSLV-C12 and a PSLV-C14 but no PSLV-C13 – because 13 is an unlucky number! Can you imagine this much superstition in the Indian equivalent of the NASA?
The top scientists of our country, who know about the technology to reach the moon and who plan going to Mars as well, don’t trust their own work enough but have to ask God for support. Unlucky numbers are skipped. Doctors are afraid of bad energies. These people are all literate but unfortunately not educated. They are studied but remained gullible. And the whole nation looks up to them and tells their children ‘Look, you can become like them, too!’ I will not encourage my child to follow such stupid superstition as these people do.
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Every individual is free to choose what they believe.
Nobody else should try to tell them which belief is right or wrong for them.
Science deals with theories, not definitives and the only place where proofs are exact and undeniable is in the abstract world of mathematics, which is a very different place to the real world that we live in.
So the message is, be concious of what you believe and how this effects your life.
Develop your own awareness of what is good for you and act accordingly.
Have your faith in what your heart tells you is right for you, rather than other people’s opinions.
They can judge for themselves.
And you must judge for yourself.