Superstition
A Very Short Introduction
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Superstition
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Narrated by:
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Mike Carnes
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By:
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Stuart Vyse
About this listen
Despite the dominance of science in today's world, superstitious beliefs - both traditional and new - remain surprisingly popular. A recent survey of adults in the United States found that 33 percent believed that finding a penny was good luck, and 23 percent believed that the number seven was lucky. Where did these superstitions come from, and why do they persist today?
Superstition: A Very Short Introduction explores the nature and surprising history of superstition from antiquity to the present. For two millennia, superstition was a label derisively applied to foreign religions and unacceptable religious practices, and its primary purpose was used to separate groups and assert religious and social authority. After the Enlightenment, the superstition label was still used to define groups, but the new dividing line was between reason and unreason. Today, despite our apparent sophistication and technological advances, superstitious belief and behavior remain widespread, and highly educated people are not immune.
Stuart Vyse takes an exciting look at the varieties of popular superstitious beliefs today and the psychological reasons behind their continued existence, as well as the likely future course of superstition in our increasingly connected world.
©2019 Stuart Vyse (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Why You Think the Way You Do traces the development of the worldviews that underpin the Western world. Professor and historian Glenn S. Sunshine demonstrates the decisive impact that the growth of Christianity had in transforming the outlook of pagan Roman culture into one that—based on biblical concepts of humanity and its relationship with God—established virtually all the positive aspects of Western civilization.
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2 out of 5 stars
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"Christian's view of the western world"
- By Bradley on 03-21-10
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Hitler’s Monsters
- A Supernatural History of the Third Reich
- By: Eric Kurlander
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 18 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4 out of 5 stars 121
The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler's personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
sobering
- By Nicholas Monco on 10-27-17
By: Eric Kurlander
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How the West Really Lost God
- A New Theory of Secularization
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- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
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-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 31
In this magisterial work, leading cultural critic Mary Eberstadt delivers a powerful new theory about the decline of religion in the Western world. The conventional wisdom is that the West first experienced religious decline, followed by the decline of the family. Eberstadt turns this standard account on its head. Marshalling an impressive array of research, Eberstadt shows that the reverse has also been true: the undermining of the family has further undermined Christianity itself.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A typical reflection on the most dominant form of American Christianity.
- By Nanci White on 08-30-24
By: Mary Eberstadt
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Hidden Wisdom
- A Guide to Western Inner Traditions
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- Narrated by: Ethan Sawyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 205
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 181
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 178
The co-editors of Gnosis magazine explore the many esoteric traditions that Western culture has to offer. While terms from Eastern spiritual practices such as Zen, mantra, and karma have become part of our daily lexicon, the traditions of Western spirituality have been largely unexplored by people searching for non-mainstream routes to spiritual experience. But for those who identify with Western culture, Western religious traditions have their own wisdom teachings that are more suitable to their needs and expectations.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, enjoyable, not too deep
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How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
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- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,029
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,026
Western civilization has given us modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of law, a sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, philosophy grounded in reason, and innumerable other gifts we take for granted.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating and informative
- By Michael Kellogg on 09-29-05
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Forbidden Faith
- The Secret History of Gnosticism
- By: Richard Smoley
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 133
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 132
The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An absolute must for understanding Gnosticism.
- By Patriot RN - Doc on 05-12-21
By: Richard Smoley
-
The House of Wisdom
- How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization
- By: Jonathan Lyons
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 107
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 70
Here is the remarkable story of how medieval Arab scholars made dazzling advances in science and philosophy, and of the itinerant Europeans who brought this knowledge back to the West. For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile, Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Missing history
- By Robert on 11-26-11
By: Jonathan Lyons
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Seven Lies about Catholic History: Infamous Myths about the Church's Past and How to Answer Them
- By: Diane Moczar
- Narrated by: Kevin F. Spalding
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 243
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 219
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 219
The world hates the Church that Jesus founded, just as He said it would (John 15:18). It reviles her doctrines, mocks her moral teachings and invents lies about her history. In every age, but especially in our modern day, historians and political powers have distorted the facts about her past (or just made up novel falsehoods from scratch) to make the Church, and the civilization it fostered, seem corrupt, backward, or simply evil.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
excellent read
- By Christine A Carty on 02-27-16
By: Diane Moczar
-
Drawing Down the Moon
- Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America
- By: Margot Adler
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 432
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 377
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 371
Almost 40 years since its original publication, Drawing Down the Moon continues to be the only detailed history of the burgeoning but still widely misunderstood Neo-Pagan subculture. Margot Adler attended ritual gatherings and interviewed a diverse, colorful gallery of people across the United States, people who find inspiration in ancient deities, nature, myth, even science fiction. In this revised edition, Adler takes a fascinating and honest look at the religious experiences, beliefs, and lifestyles of modern America's Pagan groups.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Important history lesson but missing elements
- By Waterfall on 09-12-20
By: Margot Adler
-
Battling the Gods
- Atheism in the Ancient World
- By: Tim Whitmarsh
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
Long before the European Enlightenment and the Darwinian revolution, which we often take to mark the birth of the modern revolt against religious explanations of the world, brave people doubted the power of the gods. Religion provoked skepticism in ancient Greece, and heretics argued that history must be understood as a result of human action rather than divine intervention. They devised theories of the cosmos based on matter and notions of matter based on atoms.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
We have a history as long and as rich as any relig
- By Glencannnon on 08-13-19
By: Tim Whitmarsh
-
The Evolution of God
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,077
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 691
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 688
In this sweeping narrative, which takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Very heavy reading
- By Stephen on 08-07-09
By: Robert Wright
-
The Closing of the Western Mind
- The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason
- By: Charles Freeman
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, he turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant, and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority, whether that of the Bible, or the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Not proven
- By Jeffrey D on 04-30-21
By: Charles Freeman
-
Ibn Khaldun
- An Intellectual Biography
- By: Robert Irwin
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is generally regarded as the greatest intellectual ever to have appeared in the Arab world - a genius who ranks as one of the world's great minds. Yet the author of the Muqaddima, the most important study of history ever produced in the Islamic world, is not as well known as he should be, and his ideas are widely misunderstood. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography, Robert Irwin provides an engaging and authoritative account of Ibn Khaldun's extraordinary life, times, writings, and ideas.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Issues with accuracy, pronounciation
- By Moh 3aly on 01-02-19
By: Robert Irwin
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