Superstition has been prevalent all over the globe since ancient times. It arose with the germination of human ideology, and gradually died out with the advent of the scientific age and the popularity of materialism.
The root of superstition lies in the lack of scientific basis for belief and cognition, or the blind worship of gods and ghosts. For the ancient ancestors, their understanding of all things in the world was extremely lacking, especially the occurrence of natural phenomena could not give a reasonable explanation, so there was superstition.
However, behind the superstition is actually the exploration of the way of human existence by the ancestors.
1. There is actually a social phenomenon hidden behind the superstitious custom of not turning on the lights in the long corridors. We often hear superstitious sayings such as "don't look in the mirror late at night" and "ghost presses the bed", but are these things really just superstitions in essence?
Zeng Shiqiang, known as the "father of Chinese-style management", once gave an example to illustrate this problem. He points out that long corridors are often a sign of wealthy families, and that wealthy people are generally stingy, so the corridors in their homes are usually always brightly lit.
After all, the rich do not need to walk through the promenade at night, and usually only the servants will walk around there. So, this may not be a superstition, but a reflection of socioeconomic status and wealth distribution.
For the stingy rich, turning on the lights seems to be a wealth that can be saved. However, for those who walk in the corridor and have poor eyesight, they often collide and shout because they can't see clearly"There are ghosts! "
So, in their opinion, the long corridor is not lit up"There are ghosts"It's not superstition. Again,"Don't look in the mirror late at night"The fundamental significance is that when people look in the mirror late at night, they usually wear their hair in a cloak of hair, especially long-haired women, who are easily frightened by themselves in the mirror in a sleepy and hazy state.
For these superstitious phenomena, we cannot simply classify them as superstitions, but should be regarded as superstitious means adopted by ancient people in the context of limited cognition to avoid certain phenomena.
For example, "don't shout at the sky when thunder strikes, otherwise you will anger the gods", this "superstition" is actually a warning to us not to expose ourselves to the outdoors when thunder strikes, so as not to be struck by lightning.
From a scientific point of view, everything happens because of its cause and effect, so some superstitions are actually based on the bitter lessons of the past, and in order to avoid the same mistake from happening again, people use the theory of ghosts and gods to explain it, which is the formation of superstition.
Therefore, these "superstitions" are not completely blind and ignorant, they reflect the wisdom and survival experience of our ancestors, and we should cherish and pass them on.
2. "Afraid of ghosts at home, afraid of thieves when going out" - Zeng Shiqiang once pointed out another phenomenon: "Afraid of ghosts at home, afraid of thieves when going out". Regarding "fear of ghosts at home", I believe that many people have had such an experience, even those who have a clear understanding of things.
The reason for this phenomenon is, first of all, because of the tension and suspicion in people's hearts. Any movement can touch that tight string. Secondly, as the quality of life improves, our living environments are usually spacious, which often leads to a sense of loneliness in the emptiness.
Therefore, "fear of ghosts at home" can usually be effectively alleviated when accompanied by people. And for "going out for fear of thieves", people are always worried that thieves will take advantage of the situation to commit theft during this time.
Human beings are born with one"Seek evil and avoid good fortune"instinct, which is to avoid danger, is also a kind of foreknowledge and speculation about the crisis that is yet to come.
Without this sense of distress, many troubles and accidents will ensue. For example, when a passenger is taken to an unfamiliar and remote place by the driver, he will take certain precautions to avoid accidents because of this sense of worry.
This is a manifestation of our survival by absorbing examples of what has already happened in the process of evolution.
3. The root of fear of the unknown lies in the over-reliance on vision. In ancient times, people could not rely on vision in the dark and were vulnerable to wild beast attacks, so they feared the night.
In addition, due to the lack of vision, the unknown is widely believed to be the "power of ghosts and gods", thus creating a fear of the unknown. This fear has been passed down from generation to generation, and even in modern society, it is difficult to shake off the fear of darkness, even though we know that there are no ghosts or gods.
With the advancement of science and technology, modern people have begun to use science to explain many things that the ancients could not understand, thus gradually eliminating the fear of the unknown. However, despite all the achievements of science, it still cannot explain everything, and the fear of the unknown remains.
The most obvious of these is life and death and the starry sky. The fear of life and death stems from ignorance of the nature of death, while the fear of the unknown is an extension of the fear of death.
So why do people fear death? Because nothing is known about the nature of death. Looking back at the history of the world, the root of the prevalence of religion from ancient times to the present day is not how convincing its magic is, but that it provides a "reasonable" cognitive concept that transforms the unknown into the known and the fear into the good, so that people believe in these religions.
However, does the idea of religion actually solve the problem? Not really, but it does alleviate people's fear of the unknown and give them spiritual comfort.
When people are deeply involved in problems, there are often only two ways to get rid of them, one is to overcome difficulties, and the other is to go crazy because the problem cannot be solved. The same goes for the exploration of the starry sky, where the fear of the unknown expands as we go deeper.
While contemplating the starry sky, people also created words such as "ghosts" and "heavenly palaces" to protect themselves from confusion in order to combat this fear. Even if a god is created that is above all living beings, people are not willing to face this unknown challenge.
The end of science is theology", and because of the limitations of science, many truths are still out of reach.
When people are confused about comprehensions that cannot be explained by science, it is like walking in the dark, with nothing around them but endless nothingness. In this case, a "reasonable" explanation became a lifesaver for them, so they abandoned science and turned to theology.
The fear of the unknown, both for the thing itself and for death, has gone beyond the thing itself. And the essence of many superstitions is just to let us understand things, otherwise, "if we know too much, there will be harm", struggling in the exploration of the unknown, for fear that people will suffer from depression.
Everything in the world is subject to cause and effect. When looking at anything, we should trace the origin of things from a materialistic point of view to understand the deep meaning and value of things.
If you only stay on the surface, then you can't understand the essence of the operation of the avenue.