Total Landscape Care 200901 issue january 2009 by Randall & Reilly

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Many scientists are simply interested in finding out how the world works—in knowledge for its own sake. They are engaged in basic research and may be found studying the behavior of distant stars, obscure life forms, rare minerals, or subatomic particles. Although discoveries made by basic researchers may have profound effects on society (see the discussion of the discovery of the electric generator in Chapter 5, for example), that is not the primary personal goal of most of these scientists. Many other scientists approach their work with specific practical goals in mind.

Today, the position of the Sun in the sky has shifted due to the motion of Earth’s axis, but the original dates for the “signs” are still used. Scientists reject astrology for two reasons. First, there is no known way that planets and stars could exert a significant influence on a child at birth. It is true, as we shall learn in Chapter 2, that they exert a miniscule gravitational force on the infant, but the gravitational force exerted by the delivering physician (who is smaller but much closer) is much greater than that exerted by any celestial object.

This is not a criticism. These art forms address different human needs than science, and they use different methods. The same can be said about religious faith. Strictly speaking, there should be no conflict between the questions asked by science and religion, because they deal with different aspects of life. Conflicts arise only when people attempt to apply their methods to questions where those methods aren’t applicable. P SEUDOSCIENCE • Many claims of natural phenomena, including extrasensory perception (ESP), unidentified flying objects (UFOs), astrology, crystal power, reincarnation, or many other notions you see in the tabloids at supermarket checkout counters, fail the elementary test that defines the sciences.