why are humans so susceptible to myth and superstition?

Question

ufo's, ghosts, goddesses, vampires, werewolves, the loch ness monster, gods, uri geller, horoscopes, atlantis, god

why do people believe any of the above?

Answer 1

One word: FEAR

The history of myths and legends clearly shows that early religion was a manifestation of mans need to believe he had some control over the world around him.

Early cave painting indicate that 'magic' was used to aid in the hunt. Bad hunt could mean starvation, so it was important.

The various pantheons of the more advanced civilizations, like the Greeks and Egyptians show the need to deal with more compex issues. The hunt was no longer a concern, but things like Earthquakes, famine, and drought, as well as 'the after life' became the focus.

In addition the natural human urge to belive our 'intuition' means something made it very easy for people to think that logical thought could lead to the truth, leading to many silly ideas like the four humors, and bleeding.

As societies evolve, what we fear evolves. Thus modern American dieities tend to be glorified versions of Santa Claus, with people praying for such silly things as a new car, or to make a free throw. The less affluent portions of the world, you will notice, tend to more serious versions of their religions.

All of the superstitions you've mentioned above are extension of this. For one thing, many people int he US fear the fact that science has gotten to complex for they themselves to understand. As such, they sooth their fear by assuming their own intuition is superior to science. This is easily done when you create something that cannot be disproved. No matter how many times something is thought to be a UFO, crop circle, etc. is proven to be something common place and every day, they can simply say 'oh, but you didn't prove that no such thing exists, only that this one wasn't."

Thus these people give themselves the impression of superiority over those who don't believe.

Note though, as their faith is generally pretty weak (since deep down inside they know the truth) they are easily upset by those who belive otherwise. This is particularly true in my experience with Christians. Those with strong faith are not threatened by people who belive otherwise, but those of weak faith get ALL riled up when their particular belief is questioned.

Answer 2

I think it's down to curiosity. The big question is do they exist, have they ever existed? The same goes for what is out there?
We are susceptible because we want to know if they are real, and the only way to find out is to find out and look for evidence.

They have come up with possible answers to the existence of certain mythical creatures and it's just rare human conditions, eg people who are allergic to sun light could be vampires, and there has been a blood drinking cult for centurues that might have also helped with the creatures existence. They may simply be mix of certain creatures, but only one way to find out.

As for Uri Geller, he's definetly a myth.

Answer 3

I wouldn't lump UFO's in with that list. Call me pedantic but Unidentified Flying Objects are, by definition, real phenomena. Many different people have witnessed many different objects flying in the sky that have not been immediately identified and/or explained. I suppose the belief aspect comes as to whether you accept that these objects might be natural phenomena such as tricks-of-the-light, ball lightening or strange cloud formations, man-made objects such as weather ballons or secret aircraft prototypes, or, rather more fantastically, flying saucers piloted by little green/grey men from outer space. (I myself am very sceptical about the latter, as, though humans probably aren't the only vaguely sentient lifeform in the universe, it's statistically highly unlikely we'll bump into any other from another planet!)

As for your question... perhaps people feel they need to have something that makes them feel that there is a 'higher power' - this could create a feeling of security and stability, and helps to simplify and bring order to the complexities and chaos of life and the universe. It also conveniently strengthens the group mentality and makes people easier to manipulate, often through the demonisation of non-group members, therefore creating stronger human social structures within the group. The more fringe beliefs are just extensions of these aspects, or myths and fictions that have grown to be considered as fact by some.

No-one seriously believes in vampires and werewolves do they?

Answer 4

Richard Dawkins (well known zoologist and writer on evolution) has an interesting idea. He believes that as children, we have a "belief engine" in our brains that causes us to believe anything adult authority figures (especially parents) tell us. This would have definite survival advantages. A child who believes "don't swim in the river; there's crocodiles there" will survive more readily than a child who has to go and look. Unfortunately, this "belief engine" doesn't discriminate between good advice (crocodiles in the river) and bad advice (gods, angels, devils, etc.). Most people retain these childish superstitions because everyone around them believes the same nonsense, and there is no logical reason to give them up. That's why education has a tough time of it, particularly when it has to combat foolish ideas that have been ingrained from childhood.

Answer 5

Because we are frightened. We see ourselves as weak and inherently unable to control the world around us, and we don't want that to be true, so we have a need to believe in something stronger, whether it is good or bad, that DOES have control. While I understand this intellectually, I do also have the same desires to believe in the unexplainable and the mysterious, but I see it all as sort of spiritual representations of thoughts and feelings rather than actual existing things, with the exception of a Deity--I'm pretty sure that something out there at least set the creation of the universe in motion.

Answer 6

Self-delusion is hard-wired by evolution, in order to facilitate group cohesion. That defines the sub-species Homo Moronicus, which accounts for about 80% of the human race. About 20% of the human race has evolved beyond that, and possesses a world view based on fact, knowledge and reason, rather than upon faith and belief in myths, superstitions and fairy tales.

Answer 7

There are certain systematic biases in our belief formation processes. Our survival is not dependent on us strictly having true beliefs. For example, we're better off if we're overly cautious about things, and if we're overly suspicious about strangers. Survival/reproductive advantage is also given by sharing beliefs with others, all other things being equal. In short, there's no good reason to expect our beliefs to "track" reality closely.

Then on the flip side, many of those myths and superstitions change over time to adapt to humans' belief formation. Religions are better examples of this than the kinds of superstitions that you describe, but it does apply to all. False beliefs that are refuted by our day-to-day experience, for example, will obviously die out quickly. Those whose falsehood can be fairly easily denied (like those of invisible beings, etc.) tend to survive longer.

Answer 8

I was listening to something about this on the TV the other night. Apparently we need these myth's...superstitions etc in life to help us feel complete. For example, if we have no fear of the unknown / UFO's etc then we wouldn't be entertained by such films as ET or Sleepy Hollow (bad examples?). As humans, we're natually curious, people believe in such events and beings in order to (attempt to) better understand the world we live in. It's a tricky question.

Answer 9

We are not that far removed from the stone age. Just think-some native american tribes were still in the stone age until europeans arrived. There are still stone age cultures in many tropical regions, though most have become contaminated by so called civilization---mainly through religion influences.
The fact that many supposedly educated people still believe in all these things or some of them just proves they have not fully evolved yet into higher beiings. We moved from the sledge and cart age into the steam age then the industrial age and now modern times in less than 600 years, yet it took us 2 million years to evolve from ape creatures, so we still have a lot of growing to do. Who knows, we may have been getting help from aliens!

Answer 10

If we look at the way that the eye works, we can find the answer. We all know that nature loves to repeat itself. knowing that, we can use our own eyesight to help us answer this. If you flash pictures, in order, say a movie, yet you omit a few frames, the brain is able to fill in the gaps. In fact, it is susceptible to filling in the gaps and always does, whethor correct or not.

Religion is no different. it is a way for our brain to make sense of our environment. If you think about it, many of us get it totally wrong. There is no way that any god I can imagine would ever kill. Yet there are islamic fundamentalists that want me to die because I think that way. Totally the opposite response you'd expect from someone that was religious!!!