issue41

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thanks for bricks
Issue41  第1篇 让砖头来得更猛烈些吧！
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作者：寄托家园作文版普通用户     共用时间：45分2秒     566 words
从2005年7月16日14时30分到2005年7月16日15时45分
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Such nonmainstream areas of inquiry as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are not addressed by mainstream science.
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I agree with the speaker that nonmainstream areas of inquiry play an irreplaceable role in society. However, it should be noticed that these areas need to be limited for the potential harm they may bring to the society.

There is no doubt that the nonmainstream areas of inquiry can satisfy human needs that are not addressed by mainstream science. Actually, to most ordinary people, it is not the knowledge but the certainty that matters. When facing the uncertainties in life, people tend to seek the power that can lead them out of these situations. Science, though so sophisticated that it can explain numerous phenomena ranging from the distant stars to the unperceivable atoms, can not answer the simple question of what to do. Consider, when a graduate facing the new career and the unpredictable future, which would help him or her better, a fortune teller or the knowledge learned about electromagnetic dynamics? Undoubtedly it is the former. In this case we can say that the fortune-telling satisfies the graduate's need of a feeling of certainty, even though the fortune telling may be completely unreasonable.

Even to most scientists, these nonmainstream areas of inquiry have their own values. This is not difficult to understand since the more one dives into the search of the universe, the more wonders he or she may encounter, which cannot be explained by today's science. N.Bohr, one of the most distinguished physicists in the 20th century and the father of quantum mechanics, has rightly noticed that physics cannot answer questions about the nature of time, space, and the universe. Instead, it can only describe the behaviors of them, which is usually complex and not understandable. Thus, most scientists, after they have achieved great success, turn to something else for a clear, though not verifiable, interpretation of the universe, of which Newton is a good example. This great scientist devoted more time in his life to sorcery and other nonmainstream inquiry areas than to scientific research so that people have always been wondering how great contribution he might had made if he had devoted himself to merely the research. In fact, some biograghy writers have found that these nonmainstream areas turned out to be more important to Newton than his research, in which he sought the tranquility that could not be found in real world.

Despite the satisfaction these areas may bring to human beings, it should be noted that the essence of these inquiry areas is irrational, illogical, and contrary to the spirit of science, which is one of the foundations modern civilizations rest on. For example, what astrology claims is that a person's destiny is determined by the distant constellation, which can never be verified by any experiment. In fact, not a single serious scientist would conduct such a study because it is not reasonable at all. Thus, although the existence of these areas, provided that they are under control, will not undermine the scientific spirit, once more people believe in these than those believe in science, the whole society is at risk, the circumstance of which we should avoid.

To sum up, I concede that the nonmainstream areas of inquiry are of importance in a society for the satisfaction they bring to people. However, they should be limited because when too many people turn to these areas for help rather than to science, the rational spirit of the society is undermined, which should be carefully avoided.

[ Last edited by staralways on 2005-8-17 at 01:40 ]