Why do humans participate in superstitious activities- for example, all religions?
494015
Because in unknown or unexplained events, people rather choose superstition (or religion) instead of admitting they don't know. Sometimes for hope.
474480
Only to brainwashed religious freaks, who always want to credit GOD with the illogical result, remember people just because there is a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 chance of things happening, there is still 1 chance that it will happen, but when it does all the religions try to credit it to GOD"it had to be a Miracle". Just part of their brainwashing techniques they have implorered over the years.
188763
i don't know.  superstition is an irrational belief about the relation between certain actions.
1109470
For most people, including me, it's because of their upbringing.  However, I found many unanswered questions in my religion so I began looking into all kinds of other religions.  I decided that there is no one religion which is totally correct.  So I've developed my own belief system which is a combination of my experiences and the good things that actually work from other religions.
920253
Science has shown us that all biological life - including the human species - is the product of unthinking, undirected natural processes.  As part of our evolutionary 'toolkit' of survival strategies, we have a highly developed awareness of other entities in our environment - We often notice human faces in carpet patterns, rabbit-shaped clouds and so on.  There is more survival value in seeing what really *is* there, and also seeing some things that *aren't* really there, than in missing things that really are there and going hungry, or worse, ending up as someone else's lunch.\n\nThe consequence of this undeniably true aspect of human nature is that we have a natural tendency to imagine entities behind natural phenomena and events in our own lives that aren't really there - i.e. gods and goddesses, demons, angels, spirits - a whole menagerie of supernatural characters.  Society and culture binds up these characters with our wishes and fears, our desires for dominance and submission and shared identity, and we end up with religious belief and ritual and dogma, in thousands of different flavours, with the vast majority of people broadly following the religion of their upbringing.\n\nReligion is a biological phenomenon, not a supernatural one.
652223
The more eccentric a religion is the more they need to "push" it onto others.  If you feel that you are constantly being "convinced" about religion, maybe it is time to revisit your faith.
27303
people who follow wicca also believe heavily in karma. And would not do something bad in fear of having it done three times worse to you. Wiccans generally are peace and nature loving people who are just like any religious person, with the one exception that they do not try to push their religion on other people.
514012
That is nothing but superstition. I have changed the name of my boat, departed on a Friday after eating split pea soup and successfully circumnavigated the globe single-handed. There are a lot of superstitions and if you believe in one shouldn't you believe in them all.
1141117
There isn't any proof.  It's all faith.  Religions were invented by humans.  This would be all religions going back to the days of Hercules, Thor, and Odin.  People did not have a scientific basis for the things that occurred in nature, so religion was invented to explain those things.\n\nAlso, religions were used to keep people in line.  The fear of god could encourage behavior in a lot of people.
830113
Superstitious people fear everything. Only knowledge can remove fears.
1005964
Religion carries two functions. First it gives people an answer to where they came from, so as people will not feel left alone or without a purpose. Second, it guides morality in a society. How many rules are created from religion alone? It has definately guided the morals of this country. Its not necessarily about superstition.
1116052
Because when we were young our parents infused some false and true things into our brain that made us believe. We want to fit in with a group, so we pick whatever religion we like. And we know when we are young that if we don't like the religion, than we are in trouble.\nAlso, people WANT to believe in an afterlife, and a good one or they know they will be scared as heck. Then they get used to the fear, and are overcome by the "evidence" that the religion is completely true. Like i've said before, religions are completely man-made, and those men/ women have also done bad things in their lives. The bad things just aren't officially in documents to make them look good.\n\nThis is my opinion...
572164
Well if you look at the actions taken by people due to what they believe, then you could assume there is a connection between beliefs and your social gregariousness.  Take for instance people that pass out fliers for others to visit their church,  because of their religion they make themselves more social by interacting with strangers for their church.  Christian youth group vans or buses often driving about with a group of youngsters yelling out the windows "Jesus loves you".  And the Mormons, for Christ's sake, they come up to your door and want to come in your home to tell you about their beliefs.  Also with religious beliefs you usually have a gathering of people to worship together on a set day and time.  Where as atheists usually don't run around yelling out that they don't believe in something and don't try to get people to not believe with them.  Would this make every atheists introverted, no.  And it doesn't make all religious people extroverted, of course not.  But it may have an influence on a person who feels obligated to be social, even though they don't feel comfortable in doing so, because of the religious beliefs they have.  I could go on and on about this, and then completely argue the other side of the question just as much, but I think my point was pretty much made.
537633
They say superstition affects people psychologically so that if you think its bad you'll feel everything is going wrong\n\nI heard of an experiment done on superstitious people that performed the same test with and without their superstitions present ( i think it was a rabbit's foot ) and they performed better with it than without\n\nand they ranked their feelings of the test a lot better when they had their placebo, it affect you subconsciously i think
368489
Yes, but it is amostly common with certain cultures who have superstitious beliefs. For example the Garifunas has the belief that they can be possed by spirits even if the individual does not know the spirit. They believe that spirit comes to give messages and they do so through the living. For this reason they believe that that person who is possed will talk and do things just like the person when he or she was living and they can also do all sorts of rare things to themselves and others without actually knowing what they are doing.
1006747
All religions have a dark and evil past. People have fought in the past and will fight in the future. All because my imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend.
355666
To give them a handle on life and where they fit in. Also because many are unable to handle the concept that their only reason for existence is to experience life in the physical realm. People NEED something to believe in and religion is the biggest and most popular thing to buy into to stave off uncertainty and insecurity.