Senseless Superstition

Paraskavedekatriaphobic: A person with an irrational, morbid fear of Friday the Thirteenth.

Hello readers, I hope this entry finds you well on this, the supposedly unluckiest of days. Whilst I may hold a passing interest in anything paranormal or supernatural, I stop short of allowing superstitions to worm their way into my system of beliefs. I may not be able to claim, in the strictest sense, to be a man of science; given my willingness to explore philosophy and religion. But I do consider myself to be a person driven by logic. When faced with something apparently supernatural, my instincts are to look at the origins of its birth, and of the society that birthed it - Then to remove the exaggerations, the misinterpretations, and the plainly absurd, finally studying what remains.

In most cases what remains is perfectly explainable, but are still the occasional instances when science cannot yet explain every detail. Personally, until I am faced with facts that will force me to alter my beliefs, I will continue to believe that one-day science will find an answer for those remaining instances. To me superstition feels like a relic of a long past age when people did not have the science and technology behind them to understand and communicate as we can now. I feel like the world has moved on, that society has moved on – to a place where the answers to almost everything are merely a few minutes of typing and clicking away. So it amazes me to hear of people who remain superstitious, who retain that irrational fear – when the truth is within reach. But enough of superstition, for now at least

Today has been largely pleasant; we were hit by heavy snow last night. But this morning the sun made a cameo appearance and bade the cold subside for awhile, it was also dress down day at the office – the two events seemed to put everybody in a happier, more relaxed mood; which was a nice way to end the week.

Earlier in the week I discovered a couple of my new colleagues are as big a bookworms as I, which has since lead to my rediscovery of Stephen Kings Dark Tower series. I read the first three whilst in college and loved them; particularly The Gunslinger (Book 1), but somewhere along the line they fell in to some deep recess in a rarely frequented corner my memory, and there lay forgotten for what must be around seven years.

One of them kindly leant me a copy of The Gunslinger to read, because; as I have now learnt, Monsieur King revised it after completing the series, so it better tied in with its successors. It was almost like being reunited with an old friend, after only casting an eye down the contents page, and briefly reading the first paragraph (whilst pretending to work), memories of the plot, the characters, and where I was when I read it first time round, how I felt - all came flooding back. So much so that two days later on, I am practically finished, and could not resist the urge to buy the first three instalments on the way home from work this evening. They should keep me busy for a few weeks.

In other news, did you hear about the collision between US and Russian communications satellites? I wasn’t particularly paying attention to the news story until a set of graphics was brought up showing the amount of man made debris that now orbits the planet. I think it stated that there are around 17,000 pieces of debris moving about at great speed, and around 3000 active satellites.

It seems like it’s getting crowded up there, apparently polluting the earth itself isn’t enough anymore, where will it end?

The full story on the BBC