ISSUE41

梦幻2008UID: 2447050

ISSUE41
41.”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.”
一些非主流的领域，如占星术，算命以及精神灵魂等超自然的研究生在社会中起着非常重要的作用， 它们能够满足人们那些主流科学所满足不了的需要。

Do the 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? Many people claim so. However, in my point of view, the potential harm they bring to participants and society far outweighs their psychological benefits.

Some questions, such as “How non-mainstream came into being?” may occur to us now and then. Admittedly, the non-mainstream areas of inquiry satisfy certain human needs, while mainstream science areas of inquiry temporarily cannot provide appropriate commentating to some phenomenon. Confined by the recognition level of human being and the developed level of the society, people always feel oscillation, hesitant, helpless. On this situation, people tend to turn to non-mainstream areas for help in order to release their feelings of uncertainty, insecurity and confusion. Understandably, many people would try to make difficult choices and decisions to some nebulous authority outside themselves-by relying on the stars or on a stack of tarot cards for guidance. Once human beings realize the fact that they are mortal, and death is unavoidable, they would fall into sorrow. Some people who are unwilling to face with the true awareness attempt to search for evidence of an afterlife, although these behaviors seems absurd in the field of vision of nowadays. It is the lack of common sense that makes the non-mainstream areas of inquiry become popular with people.

On one hand, 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 and are handed down from generation to generation. On the other hand, the non-mainstream areas of inquiry embarrass the development of the mainstream science, because these pursuits are not rooted in reason, they are favorite pastimes of charlatans and others who seek to prey on dupes driven by aforementioned psychological needs. And the dupes have no recourse. It is impossible to debate the credibility of a tarot card that tells us how to proceed in life-simply because we cannot forecast what the results would be if we choose another paths. Similarly, we cannot assess claims about the afterlife because these claims inherently defy empirical proof or disproof.

Furthermore, people would easily lose themselves if they trust these avenues of inquiry too much. Without scientific basic, rarely relying on such non-mainstream areas of inquiry, creative management and the progress of society would be hold on.
On a personal level, stubborn adherence to irrational beliefs in the face of reason and empirical evidence can lead to self-righteous level. Dependence and blindness will come with human beings when they give options to non-mainstream instead of mainstream.

In sum, I concede that the non-mainstream pursuits that the speaker lists are legitimate insofar as they afford many people psychological solace in life. However, when such pursuits serve as substitutes for reason and logic, and for honest intellectual inquiry, participants begin to distrust intellect as an impediment to enlightenment. In doing so, they risk making ill-conceived choices for themselves and unfair judgments about others-a risk that in my view outweighs the psychological rewards of those pursuits.