Is the Christian faith superstition or truth?

March 13, 2026, falls on a Friday. So did February 13 of this year. So will November 13.

Most years produce one or two Friday the 13ths. Having three such Fridays in one year is relatively rare, occurring forty-four times per four-hundred-year cycle and only when the year begins on a Thursday. In such years, Friday the 13ths always fall in February, March, and November.

The fear of such days is called “paraskevidekatriaphobia,” derived from the Greek for Friday (Paraskevi), thirteen (dekatreis), and fear (phobia). According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, an estimated seventeen to twenty-one million people in the US are afflicted with this phobia.

This makes Friday the 13^th the most feared day and date in history. Some people avoid following their normal routines, taking flights, or even getting out of bed. Some estimate that $800 to $900 million in business is lost on the day.

Some speculate that such fear originated in the Bible: thirteen guests attended the Last Supper, including Jesus and his twelve disciples. The next day, Good Friday, Jesus was crucified.

Patrick Mahomes’ underwear

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wears the same pair of red underwear on every NFL game day. He first wore the undergarment during a successful first season in 2017 and continues to do so, believing it brings him good luck.

Some baseball players refuse to step on the out-of-bounds line when running on or off the field. Some basketball players dribble the ball a set number of times before shooting free throws. They are not unusual in this regard.

According to a 2024 study, “very few people show a complete lack of belief in superstitions and practice none.” Psychologists explain that superstitions persist in our scientifically advanced age because they can alleviate stress, bring emotional comfort, and reinforce themselves if we believe they are true and act accordingly.

In this sense, superstitions can be like horoscopes: when we believe what they claim, we then act in ways that become self-fulfilling prophecies. If your horoscope tells you that you’ll meet an interesting person today, for example, you may be more likely to be interested in people and thus fulfill its prediction. If it warns you against making major decisions, you take its advice, and nothing untoward happens to you, you might assume that your horoscope was correct.

But correlation is not necessarily causation unless we confuse the two.

Driving around the donut shop

A similar phenomenon can be observed with regard to religious faith.

For example, we can pray for God to act in specific ways and then interpret what happens as his answers (the so-called “Gideon’s fleece” strategy of Judges 6). A rather pejorative illustration tells of the man who asked God to open a parking spot in front of the donut shop if he was to stop there on his way to work. Sure enough, on the man’s eighth trip around the shop, one “miraculously” appeared.

Some skeptics claim that all faith functions in a similar way.

The philosopher Antony Flew popularized a principle called “falsification”: if a truth claim cannot be proven wrong, it cannot be proven right. If nothing can dissuade us from our beliefs, they are just that—mere beliefs. To be considered actual truth claims, they must be capable of being proven false.

It is just here that Christianity can claim an advantage over other world religions.

Hindus believe in reincarnation, but they have no way to prove that their belief is based in fact. Muslims claim that the Qur’an was given by Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad, but they have no empirical way to test their thesis.

Christianity, however, stands or falls on an actual event in history that can be empirically tested. Paul was specific and clear: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Accordingly, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (v. 17).

In other words, if it could be proven beyond all doubt that Jesus was not raised from the grave on Easter Sunday, our faith would be falsified, and our preaching would be useless. The good news is that the evidence from history, archaeology, ancient manuscripts, and logic is clear and conclusive: “He has risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6).

Our faith is therefore not superstition but truth. And sharing it with others is not imposing our subjective opinions but giving the world the hope it needs most.

“By it I see everything else”

Friday the 13^th has long been special to my family because my father was born on Friday, July 13, 1924. If he had not been born, I would obviously not have been born.

In a similar fashion, if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, I would have no reason to believe that I will one day be raised from the dead. When I die, I will have no agency by which to determine what happens next. My life beyond this life is entirely dependent on forces beyond my capacity or control.

When I wonder about that day or otherwise question the beliefs of my faith, my mind returns to the empty tomb. The fact of the resurrection means that Jesus was and is the divine Son of God, his words conveyed in Scripture are the word of God, and his promises are sure.

CS Lewis, the former atheist turned brilliant Oxford apologist, testified:

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

When we “see everything else” in our world in light of Easter, we find peace that transcends our pain and hope that heals our hearts.

This is the promise, and the invitation, of God.

 

Denison Forum