首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Why in an age of advanced technology, should so many people still cling to an ancient belief? In part it must be because astrolo
Why in an age of advanced technology, should so many people still cling to an ancient belief? In part it must be because astrolo
admin
2010-12-04
92
问题
Why in an age of advanced technology, should so many people still cling to an ancient belief? In part it must be because astrology--claims to tell us something about ourselves, and all of us are interested in ourselves. I think it is because astrology is presented as if it were a science by its modern practitioner, and many people are misled by this.
In fact, astrology was never a science. It was not a hypothesis or theory developed to describe natural phenomena, and until fairly recent times, there was not attempt to test or verify its predictions. Astrology began approximately three thousand years ago in Babylonia; it was applied to monarchs and kingdoms, but not to individuals. It spread in the 6th century BC as far as India, where it flourishes today. The Egyptians, meanwhile, developed their own kind of astrology. But the astrology now practiced in Europe and America is that developed by the Greeks, who synthesized the ideas of the Babylonians and Egyptians and enriched them with concepts from their own fertile imaginations. The Greeks believed that the earth was composed of four elements, and the heavens of a perfect crystalline material. The planets themselves were variously thought to be gods, residences of gods, or at least manifestations of gods. The gods were immortal, but otherwise had the same attributes of anger, happiness, jealousy, rage and pleasure as we do. Now if what the gods’ thought was capricious (变化无常的), at least the planets were predictable in their movements. Because our own lot in life is so unpredictable, it must be purely at the mercy of gods. But if the gods are the planets, or somehow associated with them, then we have only to learn the rules of the motions of the planets to understand the whims of the gods and how they shape our own lives. So the belief developed that each of our lives is preordained by the precise configuration of the planets in the sky at the time of our birth.
Astrology could not, of course, have seemed as incredible to the ancients as it does to us. The role of the sun influencing our daily and yearly lives is obvious; it was a natural extension to attribute other powers to the other planets as well. It wasn’t until the time of Newton that we understood that the laws of Nature apply to the celestial worlds as well as to the terrestrial one. During antiquity, however, all great scholars believed in astrology.
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
选项
A、To cast doubt on the origin of astrology.
B、To compare astrology with real sciences.
C、To point out the popularity of astrology.
D、To justify the incredibility of astrology.
答案
D
解析
本文首段首句和第2段首句都表明作者认为占星术并非science,末段首句更明确表明占星术incredible,由此可见.本文的写作目的是为了解释为什么占星术不可信。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/vis7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
BirthControlThetermbirthcontrolreferstothevolitional(自觉的)controlofthenumberandspacingofchildreninafamil
Clothesplaya【B1】______roleintheconclusionswereachbyprovidingcluestowhopeopleare,whotheyarenot,andwhotheyw
A、Becauseitservesonlyafewspecialties.B、Becauseit’stoocrowded.C、Becauseit’stoocostly.D、Becausetheserviceistoo
Drunkendriving—sometimescalledAmerica’ssociallyacceptedformofmurder—hasbecomeanational【B1】______.Everyhourofever
A、Thisevening.B、Thisafternoon.C、Beforelunch.D、Afterlunch.C选项都和时间有关。从Mr.Jackson,canyougethereabout11:30?Thatwill
Four-year-ridchildrenarebeingtestedfortheirabilitytorecognizesimplewordsandlettersinthe【B1】______.Theyarealso
Four-year-ridchildrenarebeingtestedfortheirabilitytorecognizesimplewordsandlettersinthe【B1】______.Theyarealso
A、Meethisclient.B、Preparethedinner.C、Workathisoffice.D、Fixhisear.A
Theownershipofpetsbringsavarietyofbenefitsthattheuninitiatedwouldneverbelieve.Foreverytaleofshreddedcushion,
随机试题
意识的能动性最突出的表现是,意识能够()
吗啡中毒后的表现为
颞叶底部血肿,出血动脉是
王某涉嫌抢夺别人手机,公安机关认为王某竟然在公共场所抢夺别人手机,数额不大,但是也可能被判处管制或者拘役,而且其人身危险性还是比较大的,对此,公安机关可以采用下列哪种措施?
信用等级为CCC级表示()。
全体幼儿获得基本发展的重要保证是区域活动。()
当人们的温饱已经解决,生活步入小康之后,人们越来越认识到身体健康的重要性。虽然影响身体健康的因素很多,但在很多人看来,多数身体健康的人是平时注重体育锻炼的人。因此,人们普遍认为:多数注重锻炼身体的人是对身体健康知识有更多了解的人。下列选项中最能支持上述论证
根据《物权法》的规定,下列情形属于因法律行为引发物权变动的是()。
(04年)微分方程y"+y=x2+1+sinx的特解形式可设为
TravelingtoMarsisusuallya【C1】________business—withasinglespacecrafttakingofffromasinglelaunchpadfortheseven-mon
最新回复
(
0
)