I say it is NOT faith but superstition

Not only are these mails threatening and even abusive but the REAL purpose of them is often unsuspected by the person who forwards them. The people who start these mails do so in order to harvest email addresses so that they can collect them and sell them to spammers. Eventually, one of these emails, forwarded many times, will land back in the inbox of a professional email harvester. Such emails can often contain many hundreds of email addresses because each person who has forwarded it (perhaps in all innocence) has put ALL of the addresses in the To: box and has forwarded it 'as is' with the full history of who it was previously sent to. Next time you get one of these mails, look at it and you will see many, many email addresses in the footer or past history of the mail. Unfortunately, it is now too late to prevent your email address being harvested by spammers because, due to the carelessness of your 'friends', your address has been sent to many people who WILL forward the mail to their contacts and so on. You are right not to forward these things yourself but you should NOT be thanking your 'friend' for sending it to you! Instead, tell them categorically that you do not wish to be included on their list for these things and let them know that they are abusing the confidence you had in them by giving them your email address.

Actually i also receiving like those mails frequently. I immediately delete them or move them to spam. And even in mobile phones also that culture is coming. Some X will start a thread, that "you have to send this to atleast 20people then you will get good news within few minites..." on the name of god they are sending. Fully confused, in the starting i also sent, but now i simply delete those useless messages. But those unknown sms are really bringing upset feeling.

Chain mail is superstition and has nothing to do with fact. It is shere stupidity and holds nothing in fact. People who waste their time with such things are being silly. Junk, spam, and a waste of time. Too bad that some people actually find credence and harmony in such things. Just a waste of time.

I don't believed about that mails. I know what you mean mails. I don't know why some people doing such stupid thing...

Although a little late, I just had to answer this. I don't think it's faith either. Most of my friends don't like me sending them this kind of email. I don't send them mostly because I don't have time. And as a Christian, I don't believe that I need a prayer cloth or email luck to make my life better. If my God wants my life to be better, I understand that He will do it on His own time.

Hi Professor!. I believe such thing were 100% superstition because I never believe is a text from and or cellphone can affecting our life. Its only affecting us if we believe it. I usually got message like thats in my mail and i usually just broken the chain by deleting it. For me to send it to others will give no use and just wasting my time and money. I think the only think will effect our life is what we do and say to others. As long we treat others good it will be nothing to worries. If something bad happen in future is just one obstacle thats God think we able to handle it. just be positive.

Hi Professor Yes I get these as well and I think it is Superstition A lot of People do believe that something will happen if they do not forward them like it says I will read them but that is all

I just delete them. My faith is not in what people say I should do, because people are all the same, and I don't believe that any one has authority over the other. sure one can have a bit more life experience in a certain area, but not enough to say that something will or will not happen, if someone does or does not forward a stupid e-mail.

I dont like the threat either I only resend to poeple if there is a good message to read and usually dont send it to all the poeple they say too if I dont like the message it sends I delete

I too dont forward these kind of mails. In fact many times I dont even read the whole message. There are a lot of such mails in my Inbox unread.

I receive them all the time and I never forward them. I have no doubt that they are sent by friends in good faith but I see them as spam. Sometimes they have a more sinister side too. Rather like chain letters they exploit our vulnerabilities. Do this and you'll be rich etc. The inference being that if you don't forward them then who knows what ills might befall you. Finally, all those e mail addresses circulating. Just right for a spammer to manipulate.

Hi Bhuwanji I also get same mails but I simply ignore it and delete it. Some other mails also i will get telling that my mail ID has been selected for lucky dip and i won some million dollors and i must claim it. some other mails stating that they want to invest so many crores in India with my help. All these are scam and fraud. just delete them and relax.

I also get such emails and reply to the sender not to send me such emails again in future. It may sound rude but that is the only way I can see. After getting such emails I will delete the threatening part and forward it, I make sure there is no message which can disturb others because I could not ignore the negative things from email. Now I do not get many as most of the friends know that I do not like this and do not encourage this at all. If you believe just follow that but do not bother others, everyone got their own opinion and belief about everything so let's do it our own way. You do a right thing, we should delete the email and do not send it to others. Thank You for sharing.

Usually this mails will just spam your E-mail. They actually don;t mean anything. And they will not help you grant you success or bring you good luck. All the success that you will have must come from your perseverance and hardwork and not from this kind of mail.

I think they are just trying to use religion to add clout to their scheme. There is no basis for faith in responding to their emails and expecting some great outcome. That is more like superstition.

Friend, it happens with claims in all religions, and just as you say it is superstition. Sometimes it is even worse it is a scam. Not only that, it has a lot of potential for spreading viruses to all the people on the forwarding list and shares their information. I would not even send back a "Thank you" as they have not done anything for you and they may get encouraged to keep sending more of those silly things.

oh yeah, I get those too. I simply report them as spam (because they are), and delete them promptly. That's nice of you to say "thanks". I don't even bother replying.

I have never had any e-mails like that. I get that in the real world from people I work with! If I recived e-mails like that I would just delete them and not even bother responding back! I don't think it has to do with religion or superstition with the threatening. I think they are just being rude! very rude!

Hi dear, Even I used to get such mails since so many years. Earlier read to know what it is and now-a-days, I don't bother it and will just delete, the best option. All cannot be alike and what we can do is the best I am doing. Thank-s

Hi Professor, Interesting topic. I have received my fair share of such emails. I suppose the threatening part do work when people first receive such mails. After that, as I got more and more of such mails, I tend to forget and then ignore them, sometimes on purpose just to see what kind of "bad things" can happen. Nothing did, or if they do, I still consider the so called "misfortunes" part and parcel of life, we will get them regardless whether we receive the mails or not. Some of the contents in the mails are actually very interesting and worth forwarding, in that case, I would delete the threat part and forward the rest, hoping to relieve the next person who reads it of that superstitious burden.