Premodern skepticism was common

Contrary to the standard Enlightenment story, many people before the modern era combined a basic assumption of an unseen world with ordinary skepticism and debate rather than blind credulity. Their tendency to make supernatural explanations reflected a different epistemic baseline — porous boundaries between seen and unseen — not simple ignorance. — Recasting premodern belief as complex (not simply 'superstitious') reframes debates about secularization, the limits of rational progress narratives, and how cultural assumptions persist in shaping contemporary responses to uncertainty.