[bluekeybox]

Thanks for the response, that was interesting, especially the superstition in pigeons link. When I wrote about magical thinking, I was more concerned about worship than the kind of superstition you describe; I wasn't very clear about that (I'm not a neuroscientist). What you were trying to describe seems to be how brain generates rationalizations for events. My opinion is that the these rationalizations you describe as "magical thinking" are in fact the same type of thought process that also occurs on much higher levels, when scientists generate hypotheses for example -- except that expert scientists have far more experience to "ground" these rationalizations correctly (i.e. on evidence that is empirical and can be replicated and validated).

Although the rationalizations you describe are probably the origin for many magical beliefs, my opinion is that those beliefs don't perpetuate/last very long unless they are also associated with worship of some type. My observation was that most forms of religion and mysticism are concerned about "soul" or some other supposedly magical property of humans. Homeopathy is probably one of the few types of magical thinking that doesn't really concern itself with human beings as being special, but I think that most other types do.

I don't consider worship to be a very complex phenomenon -- I think that it is simply an innate or readily acquired (at early stages of development) mechanism that triggers intense pleasure when confronted with individuals or objects that possess many desired characteristics (above a certain threshold). When combined with rationalizing magical thinking you describe, worship results in us placing unreasonable trust in the individuals/objects possessing those characteristics.