急求一篇以迷信为话题的英语文章!赏20分

急求一篇以迷信为话题的英语文章!赏20分
急求一篇以迷信为话题的英语文章!赏20分

急求一篇以迷信为话题的英语文章!赏20分
Superstition
When mentioning superstition,many people will look down their nose at those who are superstitious.Especially in rural areas,the majority of villagers are superstitious.In their eyes,superstition is practical to a certain extent.For example,many villagers hold the deep-seated idea that praying for good fortune can help their relatives and friends who are critically or terminally ill overcome the troublesome diseases.Maybe they are deeply convinced that Gods and Buddha who are with supernatural power are in control of everything in the world,certainly including life and death.Gods and Buddha are the real emperors of the whole world.
I can not tell whether superstition is practical or not,personally speaking,there is no necessity to research it.However,many people are strongly against superstition,especially those self-appointed Homo sapiens.They maintain that superstition is impractical,and that as human beings who have entered a new century it is our duty to oppose superstition and develop technology.In addition,in their opinions,only science is the truth,and everyone should pursue it and then uphold it without the least reservation.All things concerned with superstition are supposed to be discarded.
But,still,is the existence of superstition reasonable since it has rooted in the world for so many centuries?I think,more or less,superstition contributes to the good public order.For example,it is said that the local god of the land in a village urges the fight among villagers to come to an end.In details,there are two different parties in the village:One is for renovating the tiny temple housing the village god because it can bring good harvests; the other one is strongly against it because they argue that it is unnecessary to waste so much money.Each party sticks to their guns and is unwilling to give up to the other.And then the appearing of the local god of the land solves all problems.Later,all villagers are for renovating the tiny temple housing the village god,and they lead a peaceful life again.So we can not but admit that superstition is somewhere good.And everyone should adopt a right attitude towards it

The source of superstition is, in the first place, subjective. Ignorance of natural causes leads to the belief that certain striking phenomena express the will or the anger of some invisible overrulin...

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The source of superstition is, in the first place, subjective. Ignorance of natural causes leads to the belief that certain striking phenomena express the will or the anger of some invisible overruling power, and the objects in which such phenomena appear are forthwith deified, as, e.g. in Nature-worship. Conversely, many superstitious practices are due to an exaggerated notion or a false interpretation of natural events, so that effects are sought which are beyond the efficiency of physical causes. Curiosity also with regard to things that are hidden or are still in the future plays a considerable part, e.g. in the various kinds of divination. But the chief source of superstition is pointed out in Scripture: "All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who by these good things that are seen, could not understand him that is, neither by attending to the works have acknowledged who was the workman: but have imagined either the fire, or the wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the great water, or the sun and moon, to be the gods that rule the world" (Wisdom 13:1-2). It is to this ignorance of the true God, coupled with an inordinate veneration for human excellence and the love of artistic representations appealing to the senses, that St. Thomas ascribes the origin of idolatry. While these are dispositive causes, the consummative cause, he adds, was the influence of demons who offered themselves as objects of worship to erring men, giving answers through idols and doing things which to men seemed marvellous (II-II:94:4).
These causes explain the origin and spread of superstition in the pagan world. They were to a large extent eliminated by the preaching of Christianity; but so deep-rooted was the tendency to which they gave rise that many of the ancient practices survived, especially among peoples just emerging from barbarism. It was only by degrees, through the legislation of the Church and the advance of scientific knowledge, that the earlier forms of superstition were eradicated. But the tendency itself has not wholly disappeared. Side by side with the Rationalistic philosophy and the rigorous scientific methods which are characteristic of modern thought, there are still to be found various sorts of superstition. So far as this includes the worship of things other than God, it is not only an essential part, but the foundation also of the Positivistic system (Comte), which sets up humanity as the object of religious worship (see POSITIVISM). Nor can Pantheism, which identifies God and the world, lead consistently to any but superstitious practices, however it may in theory disclaim such a purpose. The human mind, by a natural impulse, tends to worship something, and if it is convinced that Agnosticism is true and that God is unknowable, it will, sooner or later, devise other objects of worship. It is also significant that just when many scientists supposed that a belief in a future life had been finally proved an illusion, Spiritism, with its doctrines and practices, should have gained such a strong hold not only on the ignorant, but also, and in a much more serious sense, on leading representatives of science itself. This may indeed be interpreted as a reaction against Materialism; but it is none the less, at bottom, an evidence of man's restless desire to penetrate, by any and every means, the mystery that lies beyond death. While it is easy to condemn Spiritism as superstitious and vain, the condemnation does not do away with the fact that Spiritism has become widespread in this age of enlightenment. Now as in the past the rejection of Divine truth in the name of reason often opens the way to beliefs and practices which are at once unworthy of reason and dangerous to morality.

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