There is a fine line between fear and superstition. Fear is wisdom in the face of danger, but superstition is not only irrational but a tool used to instill such false wisdom. Like saying its bad luck to cross the path of a black cat, walk under a ladder or the consequences of breaking a mirror; not only in these simple forms but as well it is most evident with the major cults of the world. But because they are major and self-evident parts of society to think otherwise of their practices is taboo.
Superstition is a tool of suppression. Such suppression has been seeped into our everyday. Take for instance a father in Southern California. He's lying on his bed after a long day at work sipping a can of soda with his eyes turned to the television. He's interrupted by his son who asks his help in buying a spoken word record off eBay, and he refuses to comply because of one of the tracks on the record is from Charles Manson. His reason is that he feels if he buys the record he is supporting Charles Manson financially. He tells the reasoning of his actions by saying "There's a reason he's in prison; he convinced his followers to kill Roman Polanski's pregnant wife and wrote 'Helter Skelter' in their blood and tried to start a race war. I'm not going to support that man". He was right in everything he said. More importantly he was right with his opening sentence: "There's a reason he's in prison".
Charles Manson is in prison. The father is afraid of a man who has been captured and sent to prison and has never qualified for parole. Countless times he's been to parole hearings and countless times he's been denied. If anyone should be afraid of Charles Manson it's the people attending the parole hearings; those people know that every time they attend the hearings they know how close Manson is of leaving his jail cell for good. Even if the odds are stacked against him there's always a chance Manson can be granted parole. But until then he resides in prison where he will most likely spend the rest of his life. For this fact there should be no one in the world afraid of Charles Manson, yet there are many people who are, and not only in the form of a living breathing person but as well in stories of creation and mythology with figure heads that dictate their form of superstition just as in society.
The major religions of the world today are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the United States Christianity is the most dominant of the big three.
Each of these three religions share a common patriarch, to specify the character he is sorted by the names Allah, Yahweh and simply God. In America the Christian God has a hold of the majority of people so much it has infected American politics. For example, recent emails were revealed by WikiLeaks belonging to the Democratic National Committee. These emails were subjects of tactics to keep Bernie Sanders from advancing in the campaign and receiving the nomination for president. One of the tactics discussed was to "out" Sanders as an atheist so that to loose votes in the bible-belt states.
Two very significant details should not only be self-evident but blatant with this decision discussed by the DNC.
The first is the obvious. The southern states of the US, dubbed "the bible-belt", rely on their superstition in the form of God. They rely on it so much they will not vote for a president on the basis on so-called lack-of-faith. The reasons usually given gravitate towards the same idea that a person must believe in God to have morals, otherwise they are amoral. That is their belief because despite the massive hypocrisy amongst the majority of self-proclaimed Christians, that is the ideology they truly live their lives by. This expresses the authoritarian power they believe their God possess: the idea that submission and willingness to the law of a leader, with questionable morals of its own at that, is the only form of free will. And any attempts and conviction to act or think otherwise is to be met with punishment and discipline. This is what the definition of moral is to these people. In the same way seven years of bad luck is granted to someone who breaks a mirror, an eternal damnation and torture in endless fire is brought to a homosexual for their actions of love and romantic expression (or if you like to eat shrimp).
The second detail is the very fact that this tactic was considered to begin with. Even the DNC recognizes this behavior out of people, and not only recognize it but see it as the norm. They accept this fact despite their progressive platform they seem to be pushing and promoting in contrast with the Republican Party. Of course the goal of either party [shouldn't be] to act as a dictating force and to convert the social values and morals of a people or society, that's a job the religious right have been carrying out for quite a while.
But very plainly the basis on which people in the bible-belt states establish how to vote which way expresses and reveals what superstition is: intellectual slavery. By definition a slave is not considered to have rights or to be someone who is even considered a person. Superstition is a form of fear and voluntary suppression, only made possible by the slave's willingness to comply. So to hold such a standard on the people we elect not only shows the state of that person but as well the collective state that determines the country's potential leader. And if we are sure to ask if a candidate believes in God or is religious or not should be to find out whether they are delusional or not.
In the elections between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy this same topic was brought up as well. The only controversy was that Kennedy was a Catholic, not a Christian. To many people this drew so much concern over how Kennedy's potential administration would run. Every president before him were all Christians, this probably meant they drew morals from the bible. Kennedy as a Catholic would, as some thought, "take orders" from the pope. It was a universal fear that the pope at the time would have governing power of the US' politics through its president if Kennedy were to be elected.
This kind of concern should not at all sound new to anyone.
Today instead of a person proclaiming direct contact with the patriarch itself, there's a more overwhelming concern of politicians who proclaim direct contact with said patriarch through their holy book. Such as the embarrassing politicians like Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Sarah Palin, Marco Rubio, or Ben Carson. This behavior is so systemic Ben Carson has gone on record saying that not only should the presumptive president believe in God, but only the Christian God. That he would not tolerate nor accept a Muslim running for president. Carson has developed his superstition so much that he fears the occupancy of a foreign religion in the White House. Many things can contribute to the distrust of Muslims on his end, but any and all reasons are just as well fodder.
Religion in politics have infected society so much these mentioned and other government officials have made it their duty to keep everyone under such restriction that many are calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, a popular chant to cry out on the senate floor now that the dead horse of banning gay marriage has been dragged out. The holier-than-thou daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is speaking out for 'healthy sexual practice'--but not without heavy emphasis on abstinence-- engaged in premarital sex and announced pregnancy one month after calling off her marriage. But even so, why anyone on the religious right would be advocating for abstinence at all is beyond understanding, even when the mother of Jesus Christ never had sex and the birth still took place; or do they suppose women are asexual in the biological sense?
Planned Parenthood has the stigma of this fetal toilet; put that together with the idea that life begins at conception and you have people flailing their arms and running around in anger that their taxes are going to pay for a killing machine. And that lie is only perpetuated by those same politicians. Even so it's only wishful thinking further to think those politicians are dumber than they look when expressing their hatred for Planned Parenthood.
The organization is a public government program, yes. But the money they receive comes with explicit instruction that it not be used for anything involving the abortion operations, and they accept the money with its guidelines with open arms. The program offers many services involving sexual education, STD awareness, mammograms, AIDS treatment and other services. Abortion is also offered but is privately funded. It can only be more wishful thinking that those politicians who are adamant about defunding Planned Parenthood are really dumber than they look, but with this basic knowledge there must be more thoughts than just "baby killers".
But as a slave to their superstition they keep themselves from being able to learn and be exposed to contrary evidence and research. A slave has no chance of learning and growth, but under the strings of superstition they actively keep themselves from any chance of further growth. Superstition is not only an ignorant way of life but as well a dangerous tool of suppression too frequently disregarded.
