Astrology - Debunking the nonsense….

Millions of people believe that practically everything about them, from the makeup of their personalities through to the events they will confront in their lives over the next 24 hours or months can, more or less, be foretold by the planets and stars.

I’ve always struggled with this. I mean, how it can possibly be that everything about a person can be foretold by the position of a lot of large stones and stars out there in space at the time of their birth. Makes no sense, in fact it’s so far-fetched and so devoid of a jot of any evidence to support it, that it must rank as one of the great hoaxes in history.

Trapped with its past?

Astrology has a very long history. It means the study or account of the stars, and its origins go back to ancient times. Initially it explained how the moon affected the tides and how the sun affected the seasons. All well and good. It all started getting a bit dodgy though when it moved from this into the area of horoscopes, relying upon human gullibility instead of celestial observation.

Astrology still largely treats the skies according to what was visible to the human eye at the time of Ancient Greeks and Babylonians.  Its Zodiac is unchanged over millennia. What about all the many new planets and other astronomical elements that have been discovered since and continue to be discovered? Surely they must have an impact upon the astrological affect?  What about black holes? What about near earth asteroids – presumably such potentially devastating phenomena would have quite an impact (excuse the pun) on horoscopes? (Just think of the impact they have had on Hollywood).
As a result, astrology has become a prisoner of its past – if it acknowledges that newly discovered planets and stars will affect its readings, in one stroke it automatically has to call into question its entire history of previous astrological predictions. Not so good for business or its credibility.

Consequently it must focus on finding ways in which it can’t be disproved, wrapping itself up in impenetrable pseudoscientific psychobabble.

How does it work?

I’ve always wondered that - just how does a planet affect my personality and the type of day I’m going to have? It makes no sense. Astrology birthed astronomy, but the child has been largely responsible for exposing its parent for the sham it is. No astrologer has ever been to explain how astrology works – just what is the extraordinary mechanism by which a planet, say, Jupiter, is able to exert an influence on you or I in our daily lives – what is the “it “ that is influencing us. Astrologists need to show some new law of nature at work. Some astrologists used to claim it was magnetism. But how does that affect events and behaviour? Besides, the pots and pans in your kitchen, your car engine or the change in your pocket, will exert more magnetic influence on you that a planet millions of miles away. Nope – that one falls at the first hurdle. There is no way it has yet been shown it can work.

Inconsistency and contradiction

Astrology is inconsistent – different astrologers give differing readings for the same event, contradicting each other. There is no properly controlled evidence of its reliability as a discipline. It cannot pass any properly controlled scientific test. 
Flawed assumption

Astrology’s key assumptions are also farcically flawed. Take Mars. Because it has iron oxide on its surface, Mars is seen as a red, “bloody” planet. Hence the easy association with aggressive and warlike character traits (Mars, the God of war etc.). This means that astrological predictions about daily events involving these character traits are a direct result of the fact that Mars has a lot of iron oxide on its surface.  Nope – I can’t really see much connection there either but I look forward to hearing about the relationship between Martian iron oxide and human conflict…….

Predicting the future doesn’t work

In short, astrology does not rely upon any of the laws of nature. It operates outside this, in the realm of pseudoscience.  It relies on the faith of its adherents, and its longevity is probably more to do with what is (or isn’t) going on inside its believers’ heads than what is happening out there in space or in the sequence of earthly events it purports to predict. Of course, a law of nature may suddenly be discovered which unexpectedly provides a basis to prove astrology works even if at some level. However, don’t hold your breath – as Carl Sagan said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Ultimately though, astrology fails the first and most basic test- it does not work and that is because it is nonsense. Astrology did not predict 9/11 or the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. It did not proudly tell us in advance who would score the final goal in the last football world cup. It will not predict the next natural disaster and like any of us, it can only guess how Hussein Bolt will feel when he wakes up on the morning of the 100 meter final in the forthcoming  Olympics in July (excited I predict).

 

It can’t do what it says on the tin. This is because the future cannot be read, whether with astrology, tea leaves or tarot cards. You will not find out about what lies in wait for you by listening to David Ick or by consulting the Mayan calendar. The future does not yet exist –and any person or any discipline that says they have a secret or specially revealed, magical way of knowing what it holds, is lying to us and to themselves.