issue41 astrology, fortune-telling[自由女神小组第15次作业]

hedou992UID: 2199425

TOPIC: ISSUE41 - "Such non-mainstream 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."
WORDS: 527          TIME: 上午 80mins          DATE: 2007-2-26
提纲：nonmainstream areas 可以满足人们的一些需要，但是不能起vital 的作用。
1.nonmainstream areas 可以满足人们的一些心理需要，主要是由于人们面对困难或灾难时的无助，使得人们只能求助于神灵。
2.nonmainstream areas 有时会带来很大危害。
3.由于科学在社会中越来越起vital 的作用，所以nonmainstream areas不可能起很大作用，并注定要走向灭亡。

In this statement the author asserts that some non-mainstream areas of inquiry such as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits can satisfy human needs that are not addressed by mainstream science and therefore they play a vital role in society. I concede that these non-mainstream areas of inquiry may respond to several human needs under some circumstances, but in my view they can never play a vital role in society when considered the harm they bring to the participants and society.

Admittedly, when people encounter the bad conditions they cannot conquer or explain why it is they that should suffer these, they always shift to the stars or fortune-telling for a help. We even can understand that people go to a temple to pray a better year in their life. By doing these people can get peace in their heart. Because of these we can say these areas can do some good to our society more or less as they make people peaceful and relieve the tension contradiction. Another case will illustrate this more clearly. In so far as, there are lots of phenomenon can not be explained exactly by science or other formal ways, for example UFO, the construction of pyramid and so on. So people would easily fall into another way such as psychic and paranormal pursuits to explain the myth.

However, non-mainstream areas can never play a vital role in society. If non-mainstream areas of inquiry replace the science, our society will be a chaos undoubtedly. Let's take an exactly case in China for example. Falungong is an evil religion that hurt many innocent people. Some patients who believe it even think that their ill will heal by practice it and even worse they should not eat any pills. Other participants even commit suicide and they believe absurdly they will alive forever in another world. Though, ironically, we can not proof whether there do exist afterlife or any life beyond grave, we can definitely point out that the religion that hurt people’s body or soul and even threat the stability of society would be an evil religion. Thus, we should alert the non-mainstream areas and prevent it playing a vital role in society.

Fortunately, as the development of science, the survival of non-mainstream areas of inquiry will be harder and harder. The modern medical treatment can cure complex illness that the ghost or god cannot; we would not need to pray the rain in a temple but we can create it through a scientific way by a rocket; the heaven where gods lives would not be secret, and we even can reach there through a aero-craft; astrology would not be useful because we can predict the stars’ orbit through formal astronomy. So, as the science plays a vital role in society, the non-mainstream areas of inquiry have no opportunity to take a role—let alone a vital role.

In conclusion, non-mainstream areas of inquiry may cater some people’s psychological needs result of our undeveloped science in nowadays. But as the development of science we can see the terminal of these sooner or later, and they would never play a vital role even now.