The Mythology of Science, life and christmas road tolls

[nik0tine]

Did you know that the jig is a type musical dance? Of course you did.

[Renmiri]

Not all science discounts myth and philosophy. I had Epistemology on my undergrad Astronomy college. It was mandatory. A very fun class.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It attempts to answer the basic question: what distinguishes true (adequate) knowledge from false (inadequate) knowledge? Practically, this questions translates into issues of scientific methodology: how can one develop theories or models that are better than competing theories? It also forms one of the pillars of the new sciences of cognition, which developed from the information processing approach to psychology, and from artificial intelligence, as an attempt to develop computer programs that mimic a human's capacity to use knowledge in an intelligent way.

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/EPISTEMI.html

Astrology is not possibly real. For starters, the time of birth, measured up to the minute by astrologers is a false measure: There isn't an exact time of birth. My kids took between 9 and 24 hours to be born. What is the proper time to consider ? The time the kid's head shows up ? The time the contractions start ? The time the kid is entirely out ? What about C-Sections ? The time that goes on the birth certificate is somewhere between 2 hours from the time the kid's head just gets visible and the time the kid is taken to the infirmary.

Then the planets movement: It is not real also. Astrologers still use a 2 dimensional vision of space that was gathered by telescopes centuries ago. It is highly flawed. There is no "retrogate" movement, planets don't move backwards. What astrologers saw was the planet's orbit in relation to earth giving the impression of a backwards movement. Don't get me started on Pluto, our recently dethroned runt planet.... There jupiter moons more significant than that.

But yet, astrology works, or seems to. So what gives ?

What Besi said is the reason: Astrology uses myths and archetypes that we all have manifested in our lives, so eventually you will see the characteristics of your "sun sign" on your life. And if you don't, there's always the retrogate planet, moon sign, conjunction, opposition or whatever that modifies your "Astral Chart" just enough to find a myth that fits you. A self fulfilling prophecy.

In that case I prefer Tarot. The myths and archetypes are still there, but there's no pseudo-science trying to justify how they apply to you or your problems. You and the Tarot caster have to work that out by yourselves, using reason, intuition and spirituality. And that makes you reflect on your problems , life and actions, which can only lead to good things IMHO.

PS: As for two people researching Aluminum being born on the same year, that is trivial: A lot of researchers go for a "hot" subject every year, a lot of them are in the same age group, i.e. born within a couple of years of each other and some of those will get a good invention or a successful paper. The odds of it happening to two scientists born on the same year for ANY hot science topic are actually high, not low.

Example: Einstein had to rush his relativity work because one of his rivals was about to publish it first, after Einstein had naively shown him a draft. They were from the same age group. Had Einstein stopped there, maybe we would be discussing two scientist born "on the same period" who discovered the revolutionary concept of relativity. But Einstein went on to awe the world with his later work so the other guy got lost in the sands of time. IIRC the same thing happened with the phone. Parallel discoveries are actually not that rare in science. It's the nature of the beast, with all the peer review and building on each other's work that happens.

[Ryushikaze]

I don't think anyone is saying myth is Useless- I certainly am not- but it is really only important in a historical or sociological context (such as your above example), not because it touches us at some deep core of our being (certainly doesn't to me, any more so than Star Wars does... less, actually), but because it gives us a clue as to how the people of the past thought the universe worked, and other similar insights.

[Besimudo]

Star wars is a typical Hero Myth.

Anyhow, I was hoping to share some interesting analysis of the world ... both poetic and insightful, but alas, no one can escape the rational mind.


Consider the fennel that grows along the train track. This is a reference to the gift of fire bestowed by Prometheus which burns brightly in the middle of the train.

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Replys:

Oh that is garbage, what about electric trains Besimudo is a dim wit.



That is scientifically incorrect.



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Maybe the whole point of astrology, poetry, myth and legend is to make man the measure of all things.


Why not say that those stars look like a scorpion, or that man is a hero, or even speak of gods and ghosts. These topics are interesting because they make the natural world seem human. In the same way that physical constants resemble mathematical formulae, humans use a system to describe reality.

As stated. Nobody here has refuted Medea - the woman who killed here children. Or the man who walked with Bears and then was eaten only when he bought his girlfriend along (see Enkindu the animal man from Gilgamesh) These, like the fennel are all related to myth. Myths are exciting and the describe the world in its most primal way. Mythology is the knowledge that makes your heart beat, our guts churn and the hairs on our backs stand whenever we hear a story.


Cheers.






P.S. Good reply Renmiri, but try talking astronomy to anyone without mentioning Orion. The bright star Betelguise would not be the same. As stated, the fennel seeds are in the fire ... that first fire brought down to earth by prometheus in the fennel stalk.

[Renmiri]

There's a reason Orion's Belt is visible from both hemispheres and is one of the most widely recognizable star constellations ever....

(The three little stars in a straight line we see almost on every clear night for those not versed in star constellation names)

[Besimudo]

And what chases Orion across the night sky?

All of this relates back to the time when Orion stood on the Scorpion. When the Scorpion rises in the west, Orion cannot be seen in the east.

Mankind is weak compared to the will of nature, the heavens tell us this. Will as we may to tamper with genes, play eugenics and genocide, send out space junk, or blow each other up with misappropriated relativity theory (re: Nagasaki) the gods in the sky must find our earthly obsessions hilarious.

Scientific claims have been used to justify all of the above (except the gods in the sky).

And that dark god Hades who rules gold (money) is slowly making his claim in the world. Especially with all the casinos, banks, and fortunes.

[DarkLadyNyara]

Scientific claims have been used to justify all of the above

So has religion, and for far longer. Nice try at demonization, though.

[Besimudo]

Hmm... Ctrl + C ... Ctrl + V

DarkLady?


Cheers