The Threshold of Superstition

I ask myself, why in the year 2020 do we still have so much believe in superstition? How is it that we have compiled so much knowledge and insight about the natural world in the past 300 years but still believe in gods and ghosts? I recently have been reading a compilation of Robert Ingersoll's work, and he was a naturalist who knew superstition was an err of the mind. Even though it was the late 1800's, he was a freethinker who would mesh perfectly with the greatest minds we have today. Why doesn't this type of knowledge accumulate over generations? The same way we all now know that the sun isn't a deity, just hot ass gas.

I've learned about the physiological underpinnings of supernatural belief from psychology. I know the brain is a belief engine and there may even be a genetic component for belief in gods. But is this enough to explain why most people still believe myths and fantasy as fact? Why people believe that their god is the path to eternal life? Or that crystals and intentions will help them?

I think about what it required for me to get this point of skepticism. I imagine it to be like getting water to boil before you can cook anything in the pot. Water won't boil until it reaches 212 degrees F which is the threshold needed to evaporate the water. The added energy to the water is the knowledge and tools necessary to reach the threshold needed to abandon superstitious thought. One doesn't just wake up one day and abandon all prior beliefs without the tools of reasoning, knowledge of the brain, and valuing truth over emotional desires. It is a concerted effort in reaching this threshold and there's no turning back. I reached my threshold after:

• Taking a 16-week class in the psychology of pseudoscience
• A 2-year degree in psych (behavioral and cognitive neuroscience)
• Reading many books about the brain, belief, and superstition from authors like Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer, Sam Harris, Charles Dawkins, Dan Barker, Malcolm Gladwell, Richard Thaler, & Daniel Kahnanman
• Asking Priest & religious people questions about god and religion
• Hundreds of videos and podcast
• Endless conversations with friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else willing to engage in a little discourse
• Letting go of the fear of eternal damnation and being okay with no life after death

Maybe I am underestimating the strength of the grip that superstition has on the mind. 

I've discussed at great lengths with Jehovah's Witnesses, Christians (many subgroups), Jews, believers in Astrology, ardent ghosts believers, Mormons (so many Mormons), "spiritual" people, force/energy people, believers in Karma, individuals too confused or scared to speak their truth, healers, probably some witches, and everything in between. All claim to know some truth about our universe, some insight that is special to only them. To ask them to reach the threshold in their lifetime may be a barrier too high. 

Does this matter as we move into the future? As Robert Ingersoll put it when speaking about faith, "Abject faith is barbarism; reason is civilization. To obey is slavish; to act from a sense of obligation perceived by reason is noble. Ignorance worships mystery; reason explains it; the one grovels, the other soars." What's the purpose of humankind reaching for the stars if jesus already has a place for us next to him in the heavens?