Astrology : Part 1 — Science or Scam
Astrology is said to be arguably a mathematical way of deriving your fate. An astrologer, based on where you were born, when you were born, and what time you were born can tell you what will happen to you.
The astrologer can “confidently” predict what will be your personality, how will you react to adversity, what will end up happening to you, what kind of partners you will have, what kind of accidents you will face, what kind of financial decisions you will make and most importantly how long will you live.
Astrology claims to have the answer to everything. People who find themselves in a problem that they think is too big for them, naturally get inclined to the “experts” who claim to know it all. If you are in trouble and someone tells you that this is going to get better by looking at your horoscope, you will be motivated, you will get through that tough time.
They will also tell you that you have bad energy around you, here are some gems you can wear in the ring.
Isn’t this amazing to have a mathematical approach to predicting how life and the world will behave? So why do scientists call astrology a scam? They think it’s a hocus pocus and has no merit at all.
Why are they so pessimistic?
Astrology has been there with humanity for centuries. Our ancestors used the position of the stars and predicted how the crop would do. The nutrition of their kids depended on the agricultural produce. Lives were at stake.
Over the period, we have come far in this journey, now we can tell with a lot more certainty where will the moon be, and when will Jupiter complete its cycle, we can predict the timing of eclipses too. This sounds like progress and it was so until we screwed it all up.
Our ancestors unknowingly created astronomy which is still in use to predict seasons. This was a revolutionary insight and helped humanity with migration, growing food, raising children, and building communities. It was a big leap in human intelligence too, we measured what was once thought to be inscrutable and mysterious.
Astrology has been the most studied form of pseudo-science. That’s because it is used widely throughout the world, even today in the 21st century.
Scientists claim that astrology has no objective way of predicting anything. The key word here is ‘objective’. They refuse to call it science.
Why, though?
There have been numerous experiments throughout the years. One of which was when a group of astrologers were handed over horoscopes of people and asked to predict how long they would live. Almost everyone predicted a different outcome. They later found out that they were holding horoscopes of dead people.
In another experiment, astrologers were asked to make comments on the person’s personality traits. When the person came in front of them, they narrated the qualities. The person on the other hand agreed that whatever the astrologer said is true and matches their persona completely.
Little did they both know that the astrologer was reading a horoscope of a serial killer. In yet another experiment 40 astrologers were gathered and asked to predict which child is autistic out of many horoscopes that were given to them. Only 24 astrologers came even close to predicting that certain children could have problems. Nobody could predict they were autistic, though.
But what about all the predictions that went right? Such as war, famine, and deaths. Well, scientists claim that since there is no objective way of predicting events, it comes down to probability based on the circumstances.
Economists and defense experts often predict such events years in advance and they showcase how they saw it coming through data. Astrologers can predict famine but so can the meteorological department.
Also, the astrologers weren’t right in crucial situations.
During World War 2, MI5 hired an astrologer to shed light on the top German officers including Hitler using their horoscopes. They wanted to crack the war open.
Naturally, he couldn’t predict a thing and ended up becoming an embarrassment for MI5. Some Astrologers predicted that the USA would enter the war, but their timing was off by a mile. The USA did enter the war but only after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour.
Astrologers also predicted that India would face a big war in 1982. Nothing of that sort happened. In fact, the next war India faced was in 1999 after 1971.
It is exhausting to read about all the experiments conducted on astrology. You can google your heart out. Scientists claim that astrology has no way of defining celestial objects. Mars looks red so it represents blood and war is a false cause fallacy. There is no objective method of making a prediction. There are biases of astrologers which lead to their discretionary interpretation.
There is a location and technology bias too. For someone who believes in astrology, there’s a confirmation bias. You are likely to remember the good parts even though it’s vague and can apply to many others. You are less likely to remember the parts that are incorrect and don’t apply.
Scientific methods are more objective in comparison, you can launch a space rocket for Mars, and with proper mathematical calculation, you will land on Mars even though everything in the universe is moving. No matter which country launches a space program they all follow one branch of science — physics.
Water’s boiling point is 100 degrees Celsius. It doesn’t matter whether the water is boiled in a bigger utensil or smaller. Doesn’t matter if you are boiling it in Antarctica or the Sahara Desert. The boiling point remains the same.
How to approach astrology then?
The short answer is don’t approach it.
The deeper answer lies in understanding the law of causality. There is a cause and then there is an effect. Understand that Mars or Jupiter has no measurable impact on your body let alone your decisions or what happens to you.
A truck standing next to you can technically have more gravitational pull than Mars or Saturn. You are driving on a road following all the traffic rules and BAM! you are hit by a speeding truck. What do you call it? Did the planets cause this or is it caused by that truck driver who was probably drunk?
A lot of things happen that baffle us. We seldom blame ourselves so we find an ulterior motive in all of it. We like to think we are part of a grand scheme.
A person dying of disease will have bad planets aligned in his horoscope. So, are these planets causing the death? Or is the disease causing the death? Which one is more responsible?
You invest your money in crypto and it tanked. Then it went up after a few years. You lost all your savings. If you ask any astrologer, they will tell you that it’s probably bad Mercury or Jupiter that caused the financial loss. And you would say ‘Oh that’s why it happened, next time I will check my planetary alignment’.
So, ask yourself what caused what?
What made you invest your money in crypto? Probably greed. You might not have known about Jupiter but you could always have known the investing principles before investing money. Did Jupiter or Mercury cause your financial loss or your stupidity and ignorance?
What caused what?
A person dying of cancer, who’s killing him? The cancer or the planet? What’s causing what? And what about the twins? They are born seconds or minutes apart sometimes. Why do they both end up living different lives? The influence of the planets in those minutes should be largely the same and yet one ends up broke.
What’s causing what?
In the next one, Part 2, I talk about how astrology predictions come to be. And then the ultimate question, why do we exist? And do we have a free will at all?
This is a multi-part article series. If you are one of the staunch believers of astrology, buckle up, the next ones will hurt.