I don't believe most educated, rational believers call their faith equivalent to a belief in magic, so that's kind of begging the question. Anyway, if we start

I don't believe most educated, rational believers call their faith equivalent to a belief in magic, so that's kind of begging the question. Anyway, if we start inventorying our personal beliefs and the rational, empirical basis for each of them, I think we all probably practice magical thinking to some extent. I imagine some perfectly rational, omniscient alien interrogator questioning my most deeply held beliefs about, say, free will, or my individuality, or why the world is the way it is, and placing me somewhere on a continuum that includes witch-burners and cavemen, rather than in a completely separate category.