We all agree that Hong Kong is the quintessentially modern, rationalist city, don't we? Then what should we make of a feature in this newspaper recently promoting homeopathy as if it were an established science on a par, say, with astronomy? Or the spectacle of hundreds of young people in Wan Chai 'beating the devil' to attack their enemies through sympathetic magic? Or the burning at VIP funerals of full-scale models of helicopters and BMWs, status symbols for eternity, so to speak? I believe that we are witnessing the emergence in our city of an increasingly anti-rationalist, but still materialistic, culture, and an alarming blurring between established religion and superstition. There are worldwide parallels - but hardly reassuring ones. Both former US president Ronald Reagan and ex-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung consulted astrologers, while US President George W. Bush and terrorist Osama bin Laden routinely invoke some form of deity. And don't forget about the fashionable gurus with their faith healing, crystal channelling, Wicca and other assorted hocus-pocus. Proffered explanations are legion: the fall of Soviet-style communism; the perceived hollowness of globalisation as a socio-economic panacea; even that we are genetically programmed to believe in the unbelievable. Whatever the underlying reason, this poison is spreading in Hong Kong: swindlers peddling worthless trinkets; unqualified practitioners of 'Chinese medicine' claiming to be able to heal cancer with herbal potions; charlatans delighted to rearrange your furniture in the interests of fung shui and profit. Nor should believers in established faiths take any comfort from these developments. Traditional, intellectually coherent religious belief has suffered as much as pure science. Religion can increase self-confidence in society; promote moral order; foster great art; underpin entire civilisations. By definition, superstition can do none of these things. But can't we laugh off the whole mishmash of postmodern superstition as silly but harmless nonsense? I don't think we can or, at any rate, should. From the harm done by false claims made for folk medicine, to advocating the teaching of 'creationist science', andopposing stem-cell research, the road to hell is broad and easily accessible. When I was younger, the ultimate triumph of rationalism was barely questioned. As George Orwell memorably put it: 'I have yet to meet anyone who believes in hell in quite the same way as they believe in Australia.' In 1960, introducing his masterpiece A Man for All Seasons, playwright Robert Bolt lamented the impossibility of a martyr figure like Sir Thomas Moore existing in the modern world. Things look rather different today. How to restore enlightened values is perhaps the most urgent question of the age. It won't be by legal prohibitions or persecution: if people want to believe absurdities, then let the buyer beware. If you want to pretend that a certain car number plate will bring good luck or even that the Holocaust never happened, that will make you look foolish or obnoxious. But no one should have the right to stop you. The answer, of course, lies in education, by families and schools. Why should it not be possible in Hong Kong, at least, to inculcate in our children a real sense of wonder at the universe, at history and culture, without having to resort to third-rate 'spiritual' props? Remember, there is no such thing as a harmless superstition. Andrew Wells is a former senior civil servant and a freelance writer