Oppose superstitious fortune telling _ sentences against superstitious fortune telling

The content of People's Network on opposing superstition

Five theories on anti-superstition: a philosophical and psychological analysis of superstition

Chen Xianda

July 2006 10 10:40, large, medium and small forums stopped printing.

A discussion: it is not surprising that superstitions were popular in the Middle Ages and before. Strangely, superstitions sometimes appear today.

In recent years, superstitious activities such as fortune telling and peer review have prevailed in society; What is even more ridiculous is that some leading cadres actually demolished and rebuilt a good new building because of Mr. Feng Shui's words.

The development of science is a process in which human beings constantly overcome ignorance. Superstition is a sign of ignorance. It is not surprising that superstition was popular in the Middle Ages and before. Strangely, today's science is so advanced that people can go to the moon in space and even "clone" people, but superstition is still popular from time to time. These conditions show that in the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, we should strengthen the education of Marxist world outlook, advocate the atmosphere of advocating science and oppose superstition and ignorance.

The second discussion: Some people think that superstition is also a belief and a religion. This view is wrong.

In fact, superstition and religion are different. It has no cultural accumulation and has no certain moral education function. Although it may use some moral language, its purpose is not moral education. Superstition is a trend of thought, which has the characteristics of transience, explosiveness, mass and popularity. Its rise and spread is easy to disturb people's hearts and is not conducive to social stability. Science and superstition are opposites. Science is based on facts and takes laws as its object. It doesn't believe in those unproven absurd things. After Copernicus, science won a great victory in the struggle against superstition. It gradually breaks people's superstitions by revealing secrets one after another in the universe. Science overcame superstition, but superstition changed its form and competed with science. The development of science is a process, and the universe will leave many secrets to mankind at any time. Superstition uses any unsolved or incomplete problem to speculate and pretend to be science. And the carrier of superstition is diverse and changeable. As long as there is a suitable social soil and cultural background, it will emerge and make a comeback in a new form.

III: What should we inherit from the traditional culture of China?

In some superstitious activities, it is of course an excuse to use the so-called revitalization of traditional culture as a banner. China's traditional culture is different from western culture and Indian culture. In the traditional culture of China, philosophy, especially Confucian philosophy, is in a dominant position, which is a rationalist culture. "I don't talk about Machamp's confusion", put aside the problem of ghosts and gods, and never openly superstitious. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was a promising monarch, and the rule of Wen Jing was a glorious page in the history of China, but his enthusiasm for ghosts and gods was also criticized. In the Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin's poem Jia Sheng said: "The propaganda room asks for a virtuous person to visit the courtiers, and Jia Sheng's talents are even more incoherent. Poor midnight is unprecedented, and all the people in Mo Wen ask ghosts and gods. "He criticized Emperor Wendi mercilessly.

As for divination and fortune telling, it is indeed ancient. Zhouyi is the oldest divination book, but it has gradually evolved into a philosophical work full of dialectics. Many intellectuals in China take a rationalistic attitude towards fate and don't believe in divination. A passage about divination in Liu Ji's Sima Ji Zhu Wen in Ming Dynasty is very representative: "What is the spirit of ghosts and gods?" Because of the human spirit. Husband, hay; Turtles, bones, and other things. People, the spirit is in things, why not listen to things? "In other words, people's fate is not determined by tortoise shells and yarrow, but by themselves. It is a very wise attitude for the wise not to be confused. To inherit and carry forward China's cultural traditions, we must carry forward the traditions of materialism, atheism and rationalism.

Four theories: without rationality, "eyes are the worst witnesses"

In the struggle against superstition, the combination of science and philosophy is needed. It is necessary to carry out both popular science education and atheism education, especially Marxist philosophy education, because only Marxism can provide a scientific world outlook and rational thinking methods. All superstitious people, regardless of their educational level and experience, have one thing in common from a philosophical point of view, that is, they lack rational thinking, only believe in their senses, and are superstitious about "what I saw with my own eyes", no matter what they saw or how they saw it. In fact, superstition, superstition, because of infatuation, because of faith, the more you believe, the more you believe, the more you believe, and even difficult to understand. Ancient Greek philosophers have long said that without reason, "eyes are the worst witnesses". But now some superstitious people don't even want the senses of the "worst witness", so they easily believe Mr. Feng Shui's lies.

Five theories: To oppose superstition, we must advocate rational thinking.

Anyone who has no rational thinking ability can't tell what is possible and what is impossible. They have no suspicious way of thinking and ability. They believe: maybe, maybe, in case, it is better to believe it, not to believe it, the world is complicated, everything is possible, and so on. If a person has no firm philosophical belief in dialectical materialism, no concept of regularity, no minimum firm recognition of ordinary truth and common sense, and believes in "maybe" and "possibility", he will fall into its trap as long as he meets a little lie. In the study of nature in God's World, Engels analyzed the reasons why some scientists fell into various superstitions because of superstitious experience and extreme contempt for thinking. Engels particularly emphasized the importance of philosophy. He said, "It is impossible to despise dialectics without punishment. You can show such contempt for all theoretical thinking, but without theoretical thinking, you really can't connect two facts in nature, and you can't gain insight into the relationship between them. " Therefore, empiricists are punished for their contempt for dialectics: even some of the most sober empiricists have fallen into the most absurd superstition and modern idealism.

"Proud of advocating science and ashamed of ignorance" is an important content of socialist concept of honor and disgrace. To oppose superstition, we must advocate science, and its essence should be to advocate rational thinking. (The author is a professor of philosophy at Renmin University of China; Portrait of a man: written by Sun Xiaogang)

Source: Beijing Daily (Editor: Zi Xiuchun)

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