Astrology: Part 3 — Is there a God?
If you have followed this series, I want to thank you for reading my ramblings.
In Part 1 I write about whether Astrology is a science or a scam. In Part 2 I write about the method behind the madness that is astrology
We have arrived at the final part of the series.
What if an astrologer says that your 6-month-old son is going to become a serial killer? What would you do?
If you choose to believe the astrologer then you also believe that our fates are sealed. You believe that there is an entity out there whose job also includes writing the fates of every person born on the earth. If that is indeed true then why do we have to do anything?
Religion has made us believe that there is a God out there who monitors our actions. Then they say that good deeds send you to heaven, and bad sends you to hell. The belief in astrology contradicts this notion.
If we believe the premise of astrology, we have no free will. If we believe the premise of religion, we do have free will.
So, what’s the truth?
Will your 6-month-old boy become a serial killer?
Instead of answering this question by giving my opinion, I will build a series of logical arguments that will lead us to the answer.
Today, the astrologers are getting smarter with the time. They are adapting to modern requirements and updating astrological interpretations with it. They also started using fancy words like aura, and energy. This led to the birth of a new business wing within astrology.
They now sell you stones that attract planetary energy. Let’s say your mercury is weak, you wear a green color stone on your pinky finger that will attract Mercury’s energy in you. Bad Jupiter? Wear a yellow color stone on your index finger. Bad Saturn? Wear a black stone on your middle finger.
We have already discussed in Part 1 and Part 2 that planets have zero effect on your body or the place you live in, scientifically speaking.
Why do astrologers peddle fancy words and offer to alter the fates?
When you make a bad prediction, you lose business because the person listening to it will go mad or might inflict self-harm. Besides this, the astrologer wants you to believe that while your fate is sealed, they have the power to modify the planetary effects, as if, the Mars energy enters the Earth’s atmosphere, crosses the New York or Mumbai skyline, and adversely affects you but when you have the right stone it stops.
They imply that the planetary energies have a way of interacting with the color that’s why they also ask you to wear specific colors.
That’s not how the transfer of energy works. You’re not Shazam for God’s sake!
When we talk about fate we talk about God. Is there such an entity? Again, we will figure it out together. I will lead you to the answer. Hindu Scriptures are absolutely clear on the existence of God. But let’s hear the scientists first.
Paul Dirac said the famous quote “If there’s a God, he is a great mathematician.” This makes so much sense when you dive deeper into it.
Carl Sagan said we are all made of star stuff. What’s out there in the open is what we are made of. If we break down this earth, our environment, the air we breathe in, and our bodies down to the molecules and atoms, the composition eerily matches with the universe. That’s because we are part of the universe.
The universe operates on a set of laws. Nicholas Tesla said ‘What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics’. Everything in the observed universe operates on mathematical laws. The moon’s rotation, the sun’s revolution, the universe’s expansion, the gravitational pull, the entire solar system, the Milky Way, and the billions of galaxies all operate on these laws that we study today in our schools and universities.
The flower blooms in a specific season, the winter comes in a specific season, and the baby is born after 9 months. A law governs every single thing you observe in the universe.
The Big Bang Theory says there was nothing in the beginning, then a loud explosion took place. The universe was created and never stopped expanding since then.
13 billion years and the process is still going on. It’s expanding even while I’m writing this and it will continue to expand when you’ll read this.
Scientists contemplate that for a giant explosion to take place, there has to be a period of contraction preceding it to a point where it reaches critical mass and faces gravitational collapse.
A period of contraction dictates there was a universe before the contraction began. We observe many such contractions in the universe, will they all eventually give birth to a new universe?
Our universe is expanding in the moment and the laws of physics imply that there will be a period of contraction in the future leading to a point of singularity before we transform into another universe by explosion.
This begs the question — did we just start or are we heading towards the end?
Ancient Indian scriptures are the only possible ancient text that talks about this phenomenon. They not only address this phenomenon in detail but also have a name for it. The period of destruction and creation is called “Maha-Yuga”. In ancient Hindu texts, it is mentioned that it has happened many times and it will continue to happen.
If there’s indeed a God, it is prudent for Him to create many such laws that can operate on its own without His intervention. Including creation and destruction. So far, they all follow a law. Mathematics would practically take care of every single thing in this universe.
These laws can take care of the universe from the formation of life to its eventual destruction. This isn’t fate though. This is entropy.
Even the universe operates on the law of causality. There is a cause and there’s an event. The cause doesn’t have to be associated with one entity or a person. But that person can certainly be affected by it.
Taking the example from my previous essay, a drunk driver hitting you and destroying your life doesn’t mean your deeds were wrong, but you are affected now. This implies a cause and an effect.
If you observe a caterpillar struggling to come out of chrysalis or larvae you will kill the butterfly. If you don’t you will see a beautiful butterfly emerging from it. If there is indeed an idea of fate, it wouldn’t be so easily impacted by everyone. You wouldn’t be able to influence its life.
We influence our surroundings. So much so that we have ruined the earth’s climate, our oceans, the wildlife with pollution and toxic elements. Climate change is probably the best example of the Law of Causality. We messed up.
In The Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna explains that you cannot predict an outcome. You are only responsible for your deeds. Then God explains how to choose your deed according to your duty in the relative moment. Even with appropriate deeds, there’s no guarantee that the outcome will be in your favor.
Lord Krishna in The Bhagavad Gita suggests your duty differs relative to the time. When you are a husband, you must protect your wife, no matter what. As a king, your job is to deliver justice no matter what even when the accused is your wife. The duty differs because the probable outcome is never linear.
By ensuring that you do proper deeds relative to the position of time you are in, the outcome can differ significantly. The Gita is talking here of taking care of the law of causality.
The Law of Causality suggests there’s no guarantee of an outcome because for one outcome to take place, many smaller events have to result in a certain manner to produce that specific outcome.
The world is infinite in its internal mechanism. We don’t know what we trigger sometimes. The best example is running the country. For a country to prosper, you need a good leader and millions of subjects to do the right thing.
Our Universe is the perfect evidence in itself suggesting that everything operates on finite laws. Even the Universe’s existence depends on those laws. For any species to thrive and survive, there’s a law of causality through which you can influence your outcome to a degree.
This directs us to a few conclusions —
God has to be a mathematician. There are no free lunches in the world. Only probable outcomes. Such a world becomes self-governing.
We do influence our surroundings. Climate change is an apt example of our influence. We wiped out so many species. That’s too much power in our hands. We are now facing the consequences of our actions in the form of pollution, unbreathable air, and toxic food. That’s the law of causality in action.
From the above two, if there are finite laws and we can influence our surroundings then it means we have free will. The results are a mere probable outcome of the laws.
Even when we entertain the possibility that there is no God only physics free will remains. We might not be able to influence the world on our own, and we may not be able to decide the outcome we desire on a large scale but our deeds can increase the probability of a favourable outcome.
To conclude, your 6-month-old boy might not become a serial killer unless you fail to raise your boy well then you are setting a chain of events that can lead to any outcome. Remember it’s more to do with the law of causality than fate.
Good deeds don’t lead to desired outcomes; good deeds increase the probability of a favorable outcome. Sometimes what’s good for you and what you desire are the same and thus our belief is restored in doing good deeds.
The law of causality is the intersection where religion and mathematics meet.
With this, I conclude the three-part series on Astrology.
I hope you enjoyed the journey and I helped you gain a perspective.