Religion vs. Superstition - Madalyn Dillard

 In the book, The Plague, the people can be seen shifting to believing in superstition rather than religion. During this time, science has not developed as much as it has to today’s standards. This reminds me of when the Jews decided to make a golden calf to worship when Moses did not come down from the mountain quick enough. “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1b). The people in both instances were afraid and decided to turn towards more of a superstitious belief. 

This seems to be a trend with a lot of people in the modern world. Whenever the going gets tough, some people go try to find something that would work better in their minds, and The Plague does a great job in mirroring what the modern world is like in dire situations. 

Comments

  1. Ashlyn ScismFebruary 21, 2022 at 3:13 PM

    I like your comparison to the scripture. It does seem to be a trend that when the world gets chaotic and scary people turn to superstitions. When things get hard it seems easier to trust ourselves to preform precautions against superstitions rather than relinquishing control to a higher power. So often religion becomes superfluous to the public.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bug OlsenFebruary 21, 2022 at 10:52 PM

    I thought this was a very interesting observation in the novel as well. The fact that Camus included this description shows how he observed this same shift in the people around him. People find comfort in superstitions and fortunes in daily life through things such as palm readings, horoscopes, and fortune cookies, but even more so in times of great distress. They look for anything that will ease their fears and provide them even the smallest of hopes, but rarely do they look to religion.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Emily OttsFebruary 21, 2022 at 10:56 PM

    These people want something to believe in, but they do not want to have to give up anything in the process. Religion demands something of them, where superstition does not. They create the superstition, not the religion. Superstition gives them want they want, unlike religion.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2022 at 9:22 AM

    I commented on Emory and Emma's posts.

    ~Madalyn Dillard

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more