[Issue41]第二篇完整习作，望高人指导

yxwang1988UID: 2735195

TOPIC: ISSUE41 - "Such nonmainstreamareas of inquiry as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormalpursuits play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are notaddressed by mainstream science."
WORDS: 640
TIME: 01:00:00
DATE:12/25/2009 11:37:52 PM

I agree with the writer's claim that pseudo-sciences like astrology and fortune-telling complements the mainstream science in meeting the needs of human beings. Admittedly, people seek to find some spiritual support for things we do not understand and incidents that are out of control. As will elaborate further later, this phenomena lie deep in the origin of human civilization.  The values of these non-scientific believes sometimes promotes the general welfare of human beings. However, taking it too seriously will also cause brutal social disturbance of violence and cruelty.
People understand the world in a gradual manner. The more we know the more we cannot explain. The evolution of Greek mythology to some extent reveals the development of early human civilizations and how we look at the world. In early phase of these mythology, all stories are about deity and gods with supernatural power fighting with each other. Later, there comes half man half god Prometheus. In the latest stories of Troy, major characters are all man of flesh and bone and the mythology becomes more like a legendary history. To think this through, we may easily observe the fact that people have more grip of what is happening in the world as technology advances. Fast though, there are more mysteries and natural phenomena that men cannot explain any time. As Isaac Newton put it (and I rephrase), man is like a little boy trolling by the sea of knowledge, delighting by the findings of pieces of seashells. There is infinity to be explained properly by science and hence always things we do not understand.
This kind of uncertainty and fear creates a type of human need. Astrology, fortune-telling and psychic mesmerize believers by imposing a psychological effect of comforting. According to Maslow, human needs can be divided into five hierarchical stages, from the lowest need of living to the top level of recognition and sense of achievement. This need of comforting and reassurance lies in the middle top level. When an unstoppable force, say Hurricane Katrina, is tearing the homeland of New Orleans residents down, there must be something, faith, gut, tenet, whatever, to support them spiritually so that they can survive, while calming down and telling their kids that everything is going to be just fine.
Other than above mentioned pseudo-sciences, religious belief, cult and even superstitions often act influentially in human societies by promoting kindness, beauty and honesty. Mother Teresa, a missionary and nun that devoted her entire life helping the poorest of the poor people in India, providing food, shelter and health care, is a good example. This Nobelist of peace is after all a religious person who believes the power of god should cover not only the western world but also the poor souls that suffer from famine and epidemic diseases in foreign lands, regardless of their believes. Her motivations demonstrate the great effect of religion on human society.
However, there is always another side of the coin. People tend to believe in one idea so radically that they cannot stand any different voices. Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo and many other pioneers of astrology suffers from prosecutions from the Roman Catholic inquisition. Also, arising from the hatred towards heresy, people identified as witches and evils are burned to death, and this is not rare in medieval Europe. Sadly and astoundingly, similar case relapsed in contemporary US too. Eleven innocent women are burned for practicing wizardry in Salem, Boston. It sounds absurd but that is what the early pilgrims once did. As science and civilization evolves, more rational decisions should be made based on evidence and logic and hopefully less on psychic and superstition.
To sum up, the evolution of human civilization demonstrates the gradual learning of the world. Science and analytical methods helped people to get a better and more systematic view of the world. However, there are gaps and mysterious phenomena that cannot be explained soundly. Thus, pseudo-sciences comes into play by providing a psychological effect of comforting. This effect usually benefits the general welfare but sometimes a more radical version of the same process may cause in cruelty and even anarchy.