A superstition could be seen as a part of the tangled remains of a dying body of thought. What once was instantiated to facilitate the understanding of the movements of causation becomes the object of causation itself.
One clings to a superstition because it is all that can illuminate, after one fails to grasp the greater structure of the body of knowledge that it was part of, because that body is disintegrating over time and space. Or else the superstitious are never afforded the processes of education required to grasp the greater structure of knowledge in the first place.
At this point, it would be understandable that one would cling to whatever tools or artifacts are available for a minimum understanding, given one's circumstances or characteristics. Whatever appears to have explanatory power when wielded successfully by others can be picked up and used in some way.
