Re Fwd(akandabaratam) Astronomy, astrology and Hermeutic Sciences

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akandabaratam , "K. Loganathan" <ulagankmy wrote:

(#No. 47591)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Astronomy Astrology and Hermeneutic Sciences

For many decades I have noticed that when Indian scholars talk of science, they talk of Western Positive sciences and hardly the Hermeneutic Sciences in which they excelled. We can point out the Linguistic sciences such as Tolkaappiyar PaNini and so forth as examples of very rigorous abd sophisticated Hermeneutic Sciences and which are not the typical positive sciences.

Lately there has been attempts to incorporate Astrology as a science, a very silly attempt mostly by people who do not understand either the positive sciences or Hermeneutic science So I am prompted to mention that Astrology is NOT at all a science either in the Western sense with its Theory Experimental Testing falsification and so forth nor in the Indian (largely Dravidian) sense of Hermeneutic Sciences

The following post may be of interest to readers where Tayumanavar says that only as Hermeneutic Sciences can religions lead to mutual understanding agreement and so forth

akandabaratam/message/24183

What I want to mention is that Astrology is neither a positive science nor a Hermeneutic Science but rather a gross mistake that is really harmful to the development of Human personality. As I have been saying already , it MISLEAFS people away from BEING(God) and hence from genuine spiritual life offering solutions to vexing problems in life where as a matter of fact they are not solutions at all. They are not medicines that cure but rather drugs that make people more sick.

The point is it is NOT a positive science for there is NO such a thing as a THEORY on the basis of which some hypotheses are generated where conditions of REFUTATIONS are also specified. When cornered the astrologers specially the so-called Vedic Astrologers end up saying that astrology is not a science but an art as if such a way of avoiding the issue settles the problem

Now in saying that it is an ART, if it is meant that it is a kind of Hermeneutic Science (HS) such as Music Dance Linguistics and so forth then we can see that astrology is NOT a HS like these.

For we have TWO different things - the vast Sky with stars planets and so forth and the PERSON with his soul that has an internal structure and which in fact determines the patterns of his behavior sometimes also related to the biological factors.

Now the sky may have a Clock-Work and which an astronomer can study and construct calendars of various kinds. This is Pure Astronomy. Now a metaphysician may take the same sky with the same observations but taking it as a TEXT with a DUALITY of Structure the Surface Structure(SS) and Deep Structure(DS) may infer the presence of various kinds of Divine Forces but in the depths. This was how the Sumerians Egyptians and so forth came to recognize the presence do Divine Forces , An In-Anna Enlil and so forth and began building temples for them with festivals and rituals for each one of the gods and in different times.

But the astrologer does not link the presence of celestial bodies with the patterns of human behavior. He looks at the birth chart of a person, his cosmic address and seeing the configurations of the stars suns and moons and how these stand in relation to the cosmic address of a person , concludes that the time is auspicious inauspicious he can begin building a house. should not begin now to avoid disasters and so forth.

Despite repeated experiences of people whereby such predictions are known to be invalid the business of astrology goes on more for some psychological l reason than anything else. When people fail, feel miserable and so forth , they enjoy being told that they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for such turns of events but it is all the fault of the stars etc. This provides a kind of relieve for the person - he need NOT feel GUILTY about the evils he has done and because of which he is sufferung. He is spared such a self examination and in that misled into a false route whereby he does NOT improve as a person at all.

Thus astrology is like opium- it does not cure but instead pulls the person into another disease.

Brahminism basing itself upon the Vedas, in promoting Astrology, throws Hindu people into an unthinking lot, perhaps a cunning move to make people unthinking and credulous. Vedism is not a culture that promotes THINKING and DEVELOPING â€" it drugs the mind and makes people mental slaves. Perhaps it is because of this that Periyar started his rationalist movement where he maintained that making people rational will be sufficient to make them capable of rational decisions

Loga (revised 11-3-10)