Are superstitions pagan beliefs?

[Zysoclaplem]

I know alot of people who will go out of their way to avoid common superstitions, and many who will basically freak out if they encounter one.
Things like crossing the path of black cats, walking under ladders, opening unbrellas indoors, breaking mirrors, etc..etc..
If a Christian happens to believe that these things are bad omens and will bring about bad times, does that contradict faith in God?

 

[kogase]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
I know alot of people who will go out of their way to avoid common superstitions, and many who will basically freak out if they encounter one.
Things like crossing the path of black cats, walking under ladders, opening unbrellas indoors, breaking mirrors, etc..etc..
If a Christian happens to believe that these things are bad omens and will bring about bad times, does that contradict faith in God?

I don't see the problem in mixing and matching crazy made-up beliefs. The only harm it's going to do you is purely psychological, and that can be prevented by eventually realizing what an idiot you were for believing in all that stuff to begin with.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Originally posted by: kogase

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
I know alot of people who will go out of their way to avoid common superstitions, and many who will basically freak out if they encounter one.
Things like crossing the path of black cats, walking under ladders, opening unbrellas indoors, breaking mirrors, etc..etc..
If a Christian happens to believe that these things are bad omens and will bring about bad times, does that contradict faith in God?

I don't see the problem in mixing and matching crazy made-up beliefs. The only harm it's going to do you is purely psychological, and that can be prevented by eventually realizing what an idiot you were for believing in all that stuff to begin with.

Yes but the very idea of Christianity is your belief in one God. The God. Jesus Christ or whatever.
But if you truly believe stepping under a ladder is a bad omen, is that because Jesus Christ doesn't want you walking under that ladder? Or are you putting faith or fear into another ideal?

 

[pulsedrive]

No, because Christians believe they will go to hell if they are bad, that is almost be definition a superstition. It can't be proven, has no basis in fact, etc.

 

[Red Dawn]

A lot of Christian beliefs are superstition too.

 

[SilverThief]

All religions are based on superstition.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: SilverThief
All religions are based on superstition.

Not all of them. Some religions don't believe in anything at all....and if there isn't a religion like that, I would like to declare Scarpozzism the national religion of ATOTopia.

 

[archiloco]

local customs are ok to follow as long as they don't contradict christain beliefs....... so black cats and broken mirrors are kinda silly but harmless in my view

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: archiloco
local customs are ok to follow as long as they don't contradict christain beliefs....... so black cats and broken mirrors are kinda silly but harmless in my view

Broken mirrors are far from harmless.....You could cut yourself on the glass.....silly.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Wikipedia:

The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it denotes a lack of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states superstition "in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110).

The Catechism clearly dispels commonly held preconceptions or misunderstandings about Catholic doctrine relating to superstitious practices:

Superstition is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16-22 (para. #2111)

 

[fitzov]

I thought 'pagan' was defined as non-christian. Are all non-christian religious beliefs (e.g. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc.) superstition? No. To call them superstitions is to degrade them below Christianity.

 

[imported_LoKe]

I go out of my way to do these things.

Originally posted by: fitzov
I thought 'pagan' was defined as non-christian. Are all non-christian religious beliefs (e.g. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc.) superstition? No. To call them superstitions is to degrade them below Christianity.

Read up of the origins of Christianity.