What's the difference between belief and superstition?

Belief


Definition:

  • (n.) Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or testimony; partial or full assurance without positive knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction; confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our senses.
  • (n.) A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.
  • (n.) The thing believed; the object of belief.
  • (n.) A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of any class of views; doctrine; creed.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) You can see where the religious meme sprung from: when the world was an inexplicable and scary place, a belief in the supernatural was both comforting and socially adhesive.
  • (2) Our parents had no religious beliefs and there will be no funeral."
  • (3) The sexual attitudes and beliefs of 20 children who have been present at the labor and delivery of sibs and have observed the birth process are compared with 20 children who have not been present at delivery.
  • (4) Responding to a “We the People” petition, launched after Snowden’s initial leaks were published in the Guardian two years ago, the Obama administration on Tuesday reiterated its belief that he should face criminal charges for his actions.
  • (5) The spirit is great here, the players work very hard, we kept the belief when we were in third place and now we are here.
  • (6) The Hindu belief system accommodates this by prescribing use in such a way that this effect becomes beneficial.
  • (7) Despite tthree resignations and his reputation as a tribal operator in the Blair-Brown wars, however, his belief in the party he joined on his 15th birthday is undimmed.
  • (8) There can’t be something, someone that could fix this and chooses not to.” Years of agnosticism and an open attitude to religious beliefs thrust under the bus, acknowledging the shame that comes from sitting down with those the world forgot.
  • (9) It's not egotism, it's something else, a weird unshakeable belief.
  • (10) He restated his belief that it was in the national interest to remain in the EU, and said he was "confident" he could secure a successful renegotiation of Britain's relationship that could be put to the public.
  • (11) One view of these results stems from the belief that contraception is a necessary evil and the pill is the closest to a 'natural' sex act.
  • (12) What emerges strongly is the expressed belief of many that Isis can be persuasive, liberating and empowering.
  • (13) Following the cognitive orientation theory, we hypothesized that beliefs concerning goals, norms, oneself, and general beliefs would predict the extent of improvement following acupuncture.
  • (14) Curriculum writers and instructors of preservice elementary teachers could be more effective if they were aware of this group's beliefs about school-related AIDS issues.
  • (15) It is our belief that the reproductive and maternal capabilities of the colony-born females were adversely affected by the practice of removing neonates from their mothers at weaning and raising them with age-mates.
  • (16) But whether it arose from religious belief, from a noblesse oblige or from a sense of solidarity, duty in Britain has been, to most people, the foundation of rights rather than their consequence.
  • (17) The definition of midwife is given as midwives trained in a community setting to assist in delivery within the confines of accepted cultural beliefs.
  • (18) It has arisen from semantic errors, and a belief in ischaemia for which there is no scientific evidence.
  • (19) Many well-meaning female leadership development programmes share this belief, teaching women to negotiate, network and make decisions “like a man”.
  • (20) Hillary Clinton said that people who are pro-life have to change our religious beliefs,” said Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal in a statement released by the American Future project , which is backing his undeclared presidential campaign.

Superstition


Definition:

  • (n.) An excessive reverence for, or fear of, that which is unknown or mysterious.
  • (n.) An ignorant or irrational worship of the Supreme Deity; excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or practice; extreme and unnecessary scruples in the observance of religious rites not commanded, or of points of minor importance; also, a rite or practice proceeding from excess of sculptures in religion.
  • (n.) The worship of a false god or gods; false religion; religious veneration for objects.
  • (n.) Belief in the direct agency of superior powers in certain extraordinary or singular events, or in magic, omens, prognostics, or the like.
  • (n.) Excessive nicety; scrupulous exactness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Pointing out that “the army has its own fortune teller”, he sounds less than happy at the state of affairs: “The country is run by superstition.” Weerasethakul is in a relatively fortunate position, in that his arcane films are not exactly populist and don’t depend on the mainstream Thai film industry for funding, but he has become cast as a significant voice of dissent in a difficult time .
  • (2) According to Buddhist folklore, it blooms only once every 3,000 years; someone feared it would encourage superstition.
  • (3) Apichatpong Weerasethakul: 'My country is run by superstition' Read more According to her lawyers, she was charged for writing “ja” – the Thai equivalent of “yeah” – in response to a private Facebook message critical of the royals.
  • (4) Whether or not his challenge can be met is irrelevant, for it pegs the legitimacy of any positive argument for religion on a zero-sum game against his construction of "pure" rationality – the singular force for Good untarnished by superstition.
  • (5) A letter in which Albert Einstein branded religious beliefs as "childish superstitions" and the "product of human weaknesses" has been sold at auction in London for £170,000 to a private collector, smashing the world record for a letter by the great scientist.
  • (6) They are left in the realm of faith, ignorance, superstition, taboo.
  • (7) At the time that printing came onto the scene in western Europe in the mid-1400s, the medical community was struggling in the depths of superstition, and little rational medicine was being practiced.
  • (8) Just as the Victorian science revolution played havoc with religious superstition, so the information revolution can now play havoc with political falsehood.
  • (9) The congregation then stands to sing Superstition by Stevie Wonder .
  • (10) First of all, folk cults are usually suppressed by a nominally communist government which officially, in good Marxist fashion, dismisses all religion as superstition.
  • (11) The influence of the Japanese superstition that females born in the year of Hinoe-Uma (Elder Fire Horse) possess undesirable characters and should not marry on the fertility of the Korean immigrant population in Japan was examined and compared with the influence of this superstition on the Japanese in Japan and the Korean population in Korea.
  • (12) The sale will be watched carefully because a letter in which he branded religious beliefs as "childish superstitions" and the "product of human weaknesses" that went on sale in May smashed the record for an Einstein letter by fetching £170,000.
  • (13) eneath the jokes, the headline fodder, the superstitions and devilish charm, there is another side to Cellino.
  • (14) Clearly, the Japanese folk superstition played an important part in discouraging Koreans in Japan from having a child in 1966.
  • (15) I mean, it was sort of like his superstition, because all players are always superstitious.
  • (16) From colourful language to bizarre superstitions and unexpected decisions, the anecdotes are myriad.
  • (17) Any police force would be shaken by the sight, but the grisly tableau's arrangement seemed designed to instill terror in young officers from parts of southern Mexico where superstition and belief in sorcery are common.
  • (18) This fact is consistent with the superstition that women born in the year of Fire-horse are ill-fated.
  • (19) What makes this all so dangerous is that it not only corrupts policy debates, it undermines serious journalism – and science and history and all other rational disciplines – by rendering their output mere arguments, no more or less credible than someone's dogma, superstition or gut hunch.
  • (20) No-one thinks that the French and Hungarians, who seem to have integrated anti-GM superstition into their cultural DNA, are going to change their minds anytime soon.