Faith, Superstition and Credulity

Recently I read an article about the arrest of a Pentecostal Christian preacher in Coimbatore. The preacher in question had not committed any theft, murder or any of the crimes that one might imagine. Rather he was found praying. Praying with his wife and four children by his side. Nothing unusual there, one would think. Except that this man and his family were praying next to the highly decomposed body of Charles’ brother Selvakumar read of the Pentecostal Christian preacher Charles, in Coimbatore who was arrested by the police as he, his wife and four children knelt in prayer by the highly decomposed body of his brother Selvakumar, who had committed suicide more than two months ago. They were praying fervently for his “resurrection” oblivious of the fact that the body was rapidly and steadily decomposing and the neighbors, unable to bear the stink called in the police.

Now if one is a atheist, and there is no place for the supernatural in one’s life, the actions of Charles are those of some one in serious need of a psychiatric evaluation at worst and a big joke at the best. But what of those who believe? What of those who have faith in God and believe that He is active in day to day life, that prayers and intercession do make a difference and that the spiritual dimension of life is an important piece in the mosaic of life? When Charles the preacher and his family was praying for his brother who had been dead 55 days to be raised from the dead when the police broke in, was he demonstrating faith or was he being superstitious ? What is faith and what is superstition? Where do one end and the other begin?

Faith is often described as the sum of things that are unseen. Given this definition, it becomes difficult to draw lines within the realm of the unseen as to what is faith and what is blind, obscurantist faith. If prayers can heal a person who is sick and make him well and that is the sum and substance of a lot of the prayers that are offered in countless temples, mosques, churches and shrines, then who is to say that prayers offered on behalf of a dead person will not raise him from the dead ? where do we get our bearings regarding what kind of prayers have some underpinning and which ones are mere exercises in delusion and the pursuit of them will only lead to disillusionment and disappointment ? That is a tough call indeed.

Of one thing I am convinced though. That while faith rejuvenates and provides direction in life, superstitions’ only purpose is to hold you back in shackles and toss you back into the embrace of fear and uncertainty. Faith may not be seen but it can be felt and experienced and its end product is hope – of a kind that does not disappoint. Superstition leaves you clinging wide eyes with fear and a sense of dejected hesitancy that leaves you with more doubts than assurance and more problems than solutions and in the eyes of the watching world, more credulous than credible. As with preacher Charles’s case—he set out to set his dead brother “free” but finds himself in jail instead. an unfortunate object of ridicule no rather than reverence