an irrational belief arising from ignorance, fear, opinion or faulty reason; insanity, error
“All error arises from false reasoning. If man knew when a sensation was produced on the senses, his senses or knowledge would be prepared to receive it without fear; but being ignorant of it, he receives it sometimes as a sweet morsel that he rolls under his tongue till at last he finds to his sorrow that he is hugging a viper that will sting him to death. Now if mankind knew these enemies and how they came and got into their house or mind they would be on the look-out and their knowledge would be a protector. But the wisdom of the world has set up a standard superior to the wisdom of God and supposes its opinions must be taken for truth without any doubts or questioning. This standard is based on the old superstition that went hand in hand with all other superstitions. Science has been ridding the world of its errors, but the science of life is in the hands of the most ignorant class of persons the world can produce, who undertake to be the teachers of a science that they know nothing of.” [Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Article: Errors of False Reasoning, page 247]
"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time --when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...” [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark]
See Also