Few people like to confess outright that they do not believe
in a God, although the belief in a personal devil is considered to be a
sign of imbecility. Nevertheless, men, as a rule, have no ground for
believing in God a whit more respectable than for disbelief in a devil.
The devil is not seen nor is God seen. The work of the devil is as
obvious as that of God. Nay, as the devil is a limited personality,
belief in him is not encumbered with the perplexities which arise when
we attempt to apprehend the infinite Being. Belief may often be tested;
that is to say, we may be able to discover whether it is an active
belief or not by inquiring what disbelief it involves. So also the test
of disbelief is its correspondent belief.
Superstition is a name generally given to a few only of those beliefs
for which it is imagined that there is no sufficient support, such as
the belief in ghosts, witches, and, if we are Protestants, in miracles
performed after a certain date. Why these particular beliefs have been
selected as solely deserving to be called superstitious it is not easy
to discover.
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