What is superstition?
Superstition is man's fear of and opposition to the powers of evil, not man seeking after God. It shows itself in rituals, fetishes, and idol worship meant to ward off evil powers. Paul applied the word to Athens' idolatry, where people feared evil but did not know God.
Les teaches that in the context of Galatians 4, Paul is contrasting the Galatians' former paganism with their new faith. He reminds them that the pagan world knew of evil powers and used fetishes and rituals to ward them off, but they knew nothing of God. When Paul stood in Athens among idols and saw the altar to the unknown God, he called them 'too superstitious' because their religion was driven by fear of evil, not by a search for God. Superstition, therefore, is never man reaching toward God; it is always man's fear of and opposition to the powers of evil. The same religious system—ritual and service—had steeped both Israel and the pagans, and Paul uses that analogy for the Galatian believers who had come out of idolatry into the light of the gospel.