Scientific Perspective On Astrology
Is astrology real science?
Astrology and I have had a very complicated relationship ever since I was a kid. I’ve grown up in a typical traditional Hindi family and for those of you all who don’t know, usually, most Hindu families believe in studying, and in some cases, even determining the future of a kid even before the kid is born. How is that done? By making an astrological birth chart, also called Kundali. I have my own kundali too that my parents made after my birth. As a kid, I saw no issues with what my family, relatives, or friends believed. But as I started growing up, I started questioning them and myself about the logic behind determining a person’s past, present, and future, by the positions of the planets and the constellations up in the sky.
We don’t need to go much far, when we have a look at today’s daily newspapers, I’m not sure about your place, but at my place, the column for horoscopes and astrological predictions is bigger, and to be honest, more frequent than the columns of science and technology. In this story, I shall share with you a scientific perspective on astrology.
Doesn't consider the 13th constellation as a zodiac to preserve the 12 months calendar. The 13th is Ophiuchus.
Doesn’t take into account the distances between and among the heavenly bodies.
Comparative horoscopes are always very random and generalized and most of the time they do not match at all with one another.
Why don't other heavenly bodies like black holes, and quasars, have any impact as astrological entities, why just planets, constellations, and their positions?
People born at the same time on the same date never have identical futures as predicted by many astrologers.
Unlike astronomy, astrologers always talk in terms of possibilities using the words like “might happen” “maybe” or “likely take place”
Humans have always tried to best explain the things around them through centuries whether it be through superstitions or through a more grounded scientific approach. During the infancy of our cognitive development, we were in awe of the workings of this world so we thought there must be some divine being that was controlling all the things happening in nature. Lightning strikes? Well, there must be a divine god of lightning, let’s name him Thor. The ocean waves ripples? There must be the god of seas, let’s call him Poseidon. The only thing that catches our eyes and which we couldn’t miss when we look up into the sky are the stars. Early civilizations thought we were the center of the universe, so they found meaning where there might not be any. They started seeing shapes among the group of stars, a mind sees what it sees. So there they were the constellations. We came up with the zodiac signs and the idea that our whole life and our entire persona is only one of the 12. It depended on which constellation the sun was on during the day we were born. So why are people so hell-bent on the idea of astrology and delusional about the zodiac signs?
The evolutionary perspective might also play a certain role in identifying why people believe in the things that they believe. We’ve always been social creatures and we find comfort in that. During the pre-historic era, if we were in a social circle and introduced ourselves as tribes, we were less likely to get attacked by outside danger. This sort of developed the idea of mob mentality. We find comfort in believing what the mass does, no matter how silly, how rudimentary the idea is, that makes us feel like we are a part of a group. That becomes our safe space. To have a fresh perspective, without being biased, we need to look at the belief system of both sides, both the believers and non-believers of Astrology. I found this video from the youtube channel ‘Jubilee’ on the debate between both sides.
To claim the fact that Astrology is based on science, there has to be solid evidence backed up by replicable experiments. But it simply cannot be true as it is explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson that the position of the constellation as seen from earth changes over time as the axis of rotation of earth ever so slightly changes its position over the vast period of time. So the belief system that ‘You fall under one of 12 zodiac signs and your character is defined by it.’ is simply not true how come people born at the same specified time during a year have different zodiac signs as the position of the sun might fall under a different constellation as a result of a change in axis of rotation of the earth?
The idea of Astrology has established and rooted itself so well in our society that even the brightest of minds get distracted by the idea of it and show monothematic delusions.
People might feel they’re in control of themselves psychologically which makes them more in control of their actions even if it’s just a delusion.
Source:
Sources backing up the idea that astrology is scientifically inaccurate
Research on astrological beliefs among undergraduate students
This shows that even the most educated of the demographic fall under the delusion that a horoscope is going to tell us about how our day is going to be. There is no explanation for this other than the fact that we let our minds wander on about the belief systems that help us cope with the reality of life in a sophisticated manner rather than confront the reality of everyday problems based on the facts presented by science.
In this day and age of progressing technology and a plethora of scientific knowledge that could explain almost any natural phenomenon, I believe it’s a disservice to all the men and women working in the scientific field relentlessly if we just choose the safe way out and believe in something that’s simple and doesn’t require us to stress the muscles of our brain. We are better than this.
“We should take astrology seriously. No, I don’t mean we should believe in it. I am talking about fighting it seriously instead of humoring it as a piece of harmless fun.”
— Richard Dawkins
Contributed by Rishab Karki and curated by the author.
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