How do you react when somebody calls you superstitious? 快猫短视频鈥檚 Ariadne column (4 September 1969) reported fury at the Athenian Institute of Anthropos in Greece, whose members were 鈥渢hrobbing with suppressed indignation鈥�. The cause? A report by two non-Hellenes which suggested that belief in the 鈥渆vil eye鈥� 鈥� being cursed by a malign stare 鈥� was 鈥渨idespread or universal鈥� in Greece. The institute believed the report 鈥渄amaged the country鈥檚 image abroad鈥�.
The study鈥檚 authors disagreed, saying that after seven years鈥� work they found the population to be 鈥渟uperstitious and prejudiced鈥�. In this instance, perhaps wisely, 快猫短视频 declined to take sides.
We had fewer reservations in 2001. At the ancient Greek oracle of Delphi, the great and good would consult a priest famed for supernatural powers of prediction. Nonsense, we insisted (1 September 2001). The oracle鈥檚 pronouncements were 鈥渘othing more than delirious ravings from the ancient equivalent of a glue-sniffer鈥�. Researchers had found that Delphi鈥檚 temple of Apollo was built above a geological fault from which spring water containing dissolved gases 鈥� including ethylene 鈥� could escape. Ethylene can cause delirium and, we reported, the priest鈥檚 trance-like state could have been the result of drinking this water.
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Author and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, of course, is nothing but direct when it comes to any form of religion. We reviewed his book The Greatest Show on Earth: The evidence for evolution (12 September 2009) only to come to the conclusion that 鈥測ou have to wonder why Dawkins wastes so much time arguing with creationists鈥� whom we know are 鈥渘ot rational thinkers鈥� driven by beliefs, not logic鈥�.
A diplomatic course through the minefield of religion is sometimes not 快猫短视频鈥檚 preferred route.
