Espi:
Well, as society evolves, it becomes a little less superstitious and religious. Logic and time and rationale replace superstition and religion. Back in the old days, cultures truly believed that much of life's events were controlled by dieties. In my opinion, we're a lot more rational about things compared to the days of mythological gods and virgin sacrificing.
As much as I want to co-sign with agreement with this naivety, I disagree.
Society has only barely evolved. Here we stand five hundred years since the Renaissance and Enlightenment and, according to two Gallup polls, 80% of Americans hold at least one paranormal belief, like ghosts, telepathy, pre-cognition, UFOs, and fairy leprechaun unicorns. There are strong anti-intellectual anti-scientific sentiments among the general population. Whenever I write on a scientific topic of skepticism of a paranormal or superstitious belief, I always receive fire from commenters how science has been wrong in the past and how intellectuals are in their Ivory Towers, away from common sense and out of touch with reality, supposedly. Carl Sagan held a candle in the dark with his book
The Demon Haunted World and there is not enough darkness in the world to extinguish the light of a single candle. There may be more candles now than yesteryear but the darkness will always remain. People enjoy the fruits of technology but despise science when it deflates their fantasies.
People tend to become superstitious when there is a psychological external locus of control, periods of stress, uncertainty, and danger when they need to survive. Cultures have more superstitions the further out and more tumultuous the ocean depths their people travel; baseball players have superstitious rituals before batting but not when they are in the outfield where statistics favor them. People see patterns to adapt from their environment and spot dangers, and people see more patterns when they are about to jump out of an airplane. People with higher levels of dopamine are more creative; experiments show people who tend to have paranormal experiences tend to have more dopamine and are more creative thinkers. It's good to be open-minded to new ideas but not so open that your brain fails out.
There was a period of time during the 1980's when intellectuals like Carl Sagan and Michael Shermer thought the candle of rationality would triumph over superstitions and religion, but the tides of religion fought back. As James Randi once pointed out, belief is like an unsinkable rubber duck. It keeps floating no matter how much contrary evidence and reason is presented otherwise.
Julius_Seizeher:
Given the choice between a radical new nanomolecular drug or the chanting of a witch doctor, which cure would you choose?
Many governments in Africa reject AIDS medicine for holy water.
