Roland's too few scientists have more pressing tasks than tracking down the origins of what is, as you put it, a revived medieval superstition.

They have their Bronze Age myths, medieval superstitions and childish wishful thinking.

You quote Mr. Hitchens as saying that "The profane marriage between tawdry media hype and medieval superstition gave birth to an icon which few have had the poor taste to question."

Seizure: Feudal Law & Order When the federal government seizes cars, boats, money, real estate, and other personal property, proceeding are set into motion based on laws that originated with medieval superstition.

Many modern liberals dismiss Lewis's concept of the diabolical as a "medieval" superstition.

"Each of the book's twenty-four chapters deals with a particular medieval superstition and its variants and antecedents," writes critic Steven J. Mariconda.

A series of vignettes theatrically demonstrating medieval superstition and beliefs concerning witchcraft, including Satan (played by Christensen himself) tempting a sleeping woman away from her husband's bed and terrorizing a group of monks.

His superiors frown on exorcism as a medieval superstition.