Issue41.Such non-mainstream areas as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuit play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are not addressed by mainstream science.
The so-called “non-mainstream areas” today such as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuit had indeed played a incontestably dominant role in human history, and their great and deep influence has even spread all over contemporary world dominated by rationalism and scientism. While acknowledging this role of non-mainstream areas, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that with the extraordinary progress of modern science and technology, effects of non-mainstream areas imposed upon human life is gradually fading away from the vision of human beings. And the more advanced science and technology, the more manifest this tendency. In the undeveloped stage of human being, when there were no any idea of science or knowledge, it were only those somewhat mysterious forces that ancient people could resort to for the sake of eliminating or at least alleviating their confusion and anxiety over the incomprehensible events happened in nature. The innate curiosity of human also caused them to make all kinds of imaginative but not necessary scientific explanations about what they wondered and wanted. What is more, people need this occultism to reassure their uncertainty for future. Every ancient culture has its own mysterious method. In ancient China, for example, special diviners, who predicted the future used a set of sticks called the I Ching. In ancient Rome, special priests called augurs predicted the future by interpreting certain signs in nature. The ancient Greeks consulted oracles, who supposedly learned of future events by speaking directly with the gods. These are brought to birth on the basis of their living situation and religious backgrounds. By this means, people’s needs for curiosity, consolation, as well as “rational” grounds for their behaviors were greatly satisfied. Certainly this is why these so-called non-mainstream areas thrived in the ancient age and had dominated human civilization for thousands of years. However, while giving rise to the prosperity of these mysterious cultures, human perpetual needs for the unknown and the unsatisfied also inevitably lead to their degeneration or ever-accelerating retreat from human civilization, with the rapid progress of modern science and technology. The famous German philosopher and poet, Nietzsche, once said (and I paraphase):Do you really believe that the sciences would ever have originated and grown if the way had not been prepared by magicians, alchemists, astrologers, and witches whose promises and pretensions first had to create a thirst, a hunger, a taste for hidden and forbidden. The current non-mainstream, which was mainstream in past, have been gradually replaced by science and technology, the new mainstream of modern age, in that they can better serve for human needs or desires, either mentally or materially. Consider a instance to better illustrate this point: the ancient people could not understand the occurring of thunder and lighting, thus they explained it as the anger of the deity and asked wizard to hold various rites to prey for the blessing of the deity. However, as long as human has possessed enough knowledge, they would no longer rely on those non-mainstream inquiries in that they have already enlightened that those inquiries actually make no sense. Although millions of people now still believe in and practice the non-mainstream, they just seek mental comfort and psychological support to relieve their pressure from work or their worries for future life.The important role the non-mainstream once played has weaken.
Considerating further, some so-called non-mainstream pursits today such as astrology may due to the limitations of human's knowledge and technology. In the future, with even excellent level of science and technology, we maybe detect and testify that there are indeed some correlations between the positions and movements of astronomical bodies, particularly the sun, moon, planets, and stars and the event on earth, the behavior and the mood of people. Thus, it will upgrade to mainstream area.
To sum up, regardless of their critical role in human life, astrology, fortune-telling and other non-mainstream areas are gradually fading away from the human civilization. And with the ever-increasing rate of scientific progress, their effect on human beings will becoming too trivial to notice until these non-mainstream supported by enough scientific evidences.
[ 本帖最后由 lys0209 于 2007-2-24 18:01 编辑 ] | 
发表于 2007-2-23 21:20:37
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