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What interests me about the article is the fallout between astronomy and astrology, akin to the fallout between medicine and magic. Western scientific culture

What interests me about the article is the fallout between astronomy and astrology, akin to the fallout between medicine and magic. Western scientific culture is so obsessed with the tangible that we minimize (and to some point ridicule) spirituality, although science and spirituality at some point were once one and the same. Human beings need spiritual experiences, and "young" people flocking to astrology seems like a response to this evident lack of spirituality in Western culture.

quic5 3y ago
> Human beings need spiritual experiences That is debatable. Spiritual explanations are just easier and we humans are lazy
goku12 3y ago
This explanations have so many logical issues. It feels like hand waving. - The false dichotomy between 'western' science and spiritual (eastern? ancient?) science. There is just one science that's defined by scientific methods. Almost every culture knew this method. - The implication that at some point in the past, science also dealt with intangible things. Science is always based on evidence. Rest was always in the realm of mysticism. - That spirituality is about the intangible. It has been shown that people can get spiritual experiences from many non-religious and tangible things like music, meditation, arts, nature and martial-arts. - That 'western' science minimize and ridicule spirituality. Science practitioners ridicule illogical things like astrology. But spirituality and its importance has been the subject of several serious scientific studies. I haven't seen one study that simply dismisses spirituality. - Though not directly said, there is implication that astrology is a spiritual experience. Sure! If you're deluding yourself. But having studied a bit of vedic astrology myself, I never found the practice to be spiritually touching at all. The only part that I found valuable was the ancient mathematics/astronomy that precedes the prediction stage. If astrology can be considered as spiritual, then flat-earth beliefs can also be.

quic5 3y ago

> Human beings need spiritual experiences That is debatable. Spiritual explanations are just easier and we humans are lazy

goku12 3y ago

This explanations have so many logical issues. It feels like hand waving. - The false dichotomy between 'western' science and spiritual (eastern? ancient?) science. There is just one science that's defined by scientific methods. Almost every culture knew this method. - The implication that at some point in the past, science also dealt with intangible things. Science is always based on evidence. Rest was always in the realm of mysticism. - That spirituality is about the intangible. It has been shown that people can get spiritual experiences from many non-religious and tangible things like music, meditation, arts, nature and martial-arts. - That 'western' science minimize and ridicule spirituality. Science practitioners ridicule illogical things like astrology. But spirituality and its importance has been the subject of several serious scientific studies. I haven't seen one study that simply dismisses spirituality. - Though not directly said, there is implication that astrology is a spiritual experience. Sure! If you're deluding yourself. But having studied a bit of vedic astrology myself, I never found the practice to be spiritually touching at all. The only part that I found valuable was the ancient mathematics/astronomy that precedes the prediction stage. If astrology can be considered as spiritual, then flat-earth beliefs can also be.