Can one be Atheist and Superstitious?

[DramaQueen]

Of course you can be atheist and religious. What about Buddhism, Taoism, and LaVeyan (atheistic) Satanism?

People always tell me they aren't really religions.

They are religions but they aren't - G-d

[Mister Agenda]

How about first convince anthropologists and members of those religions they aren't religious, then anti-religious atheists will have the definition for religion they want without contention. It's not a good use of my time, in my opinion, so I'll let the more inclusive definition stand.

[Anomalocaris]

It seems to me theism is the outgrowth of imagination that ran away with superstition. So superstition must precede theism. Therefore the first people to be superstitious must have been atheists.

[Bob the Dugong Deity]

I'll walk around a ladder.
My mothers dead so gaps in the paving don't affect the placement of my feet as much as they used to.

[Polaris]

One can be atheist and religious.

Lets see..

Atheist - A person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods

Religious - Relating to or believing in a religion

Religion - The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

Yeah... That totally checks out..

You haven't spent much time with people of other cultures or backgrounds, have you?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/

http://www.religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm

[Mr Greene]

We're human beings, not automata. As such it's entirely possible to hold superstitious viewpoints regardless of belief in deities.

[BrokenQuill92]

[Brian37]

I've have posted a couple new threads and found that I was very well educated in both argument and foolishness.

So I wanted to ask another question that is personal to me.

While I don't believe in any god or gods yet I don't reject the possibility that one or several may exist, does that make me foolish or disingenuous of claiming to be an atheist if I "knock on wood" and occasionally partake in superstitious thinking? Basically warding off bad luck, even if I have no understanding or belief that it will help but do so anyway under the pretense that it doesn't hurt to try?

I'd like to not misrepresent the community.

Our "community" is only common in the "off" position we use to denote god belief, nothing more.

So to answer your question, YES. Atheists can have other woo bullshit thoughts and superstitions.

I've run into atheists who believe 9/11 and JFK conspiracies. I know atheists who claim the universe is some sort of entity itself. I know other atheists who claim Gene Rodenbury invented the modern cell phone.

"Atheist" is strictly addressing the position an individual has on the existence of a god. It does not address their education level or or logic and reasoning skills.

[Simon Moon]

You can be an atheist and superstitious, you just can't be superstitious and a critical thinker and a skeptic.

My atheism is a byproduct of my skepticism and critical thinking. The same level of skepticism and critical thinking eliminated all known magical thinking from my mind.

If someone is able to point out to me something I believe that is based on magical thinking, like a superstition for example, I will stop believing it.

And no, this doesn't make me a joyless robot. There is more than enough mystery and beauty in the universe to keep me in wonder and awe for the rest of my life.

[Endo]

Superstitions and magical thinking aren't unique to the religious, they're human things. Hell, they're how religions began, really. There's nothing to stop an atheist from falling victim to those same cognitive errors even if they've rejected them where it concerns religion.

Some of it is probably cultural too. I still say "wish me luck," and stuff like that, but to me they're just expressions that denote a desire for positive thinking. I don't think it'll actually do something on its own, it's just a sort of convenient shorthand.

Emphasizing mine. I'd like to counter the assertion that these are HUMAN things, I think they can be classified even broader than that, anything with a brain can exhibit "superstitious" traits. Superstition is an attempt to define a certain thing as a cause for another thing, when in reality, that "certain thing"
isn't actually related in any way. Take Skinner's pigeon experiment, the one with the timed food-trays. Without anything else happening (besides these food trays coming out at regular intervals), these pigeons developed odd behaviors in attempts to get the food boxes to open. In their minds, if they pecked that one corner, or stood on one leg long enough, they would be fed. And thus, superstition.