Psi: How Open Minded are You Really?

[bennyboy]

Of course - with rising intelligence, resulting in relatively smaller environmental pressure - it makes less and less sense - in terms of evolutionary advantage, to rely on superstition to "deal" with our problems, since many of those may be solved rationally - with far greater benefits.

In an advanced and stable society like ours, there seems to be very little point to superstitious behavior: we make use of the things we know about, and the things we don't know about are kept at a distance, i.e. they don't seem to negatively affect us, at least in our mundane lives.

But what happens when most bacteria are resistant to antibiotics, when airborn super-ebola starts sweeping through cities, and when zombies start scratching at the doors? It seems to me our solutions are a product of technology and a stable culture, not specifically of rational thinking habits among the population. The day I see my kids melt into the ground is the day I start wondering if I should change my necktie on odd Tuesdays and maybe do a little Joo-joo dance before breakfast every morning.