astrology - is it a load of rubbish or something in it?

Answer 1

How can the position of the stars affect your life? Only two forces emanate from stars: light and gravity. And when you're born, the light in the Maternity Ward and the gravity of the obstetrician exceed anything that comes from any star. Ancient Babylonians made up stories about star configurations and thought they ran life here, and too many subsequent cultures have absorbed this unscientific nonsense.

Answer 2

Depends - there are many different kinds of Astrology from the Western style of vague horoscopes in the newspaper predicting what may happen to you during the coming week, through Chinese horoscopes that are based on completely different knowledge and approach & try to tell you what sort of personality you will have throughout your life (& more), to ancient Hindu astrology that is more concerned with world events.

You could even include a Stock Market trader in the USA I know of, who has meticulously statistically researched how price movements in the Stock Markets and FX markets are affected by planetary and star movements, and uses this to profitably trade.

And it's been statistically proven that crime rises when there is a full moon - police used to believe this, but most scientists used to dismiss this as superstitious cops - until they bothered to measure crime rates and full moon coincidences. Suddenly it all made sense & it occurred to them that it must be because there's more light at night during a full moon, so there's more criminals about trying to break into houses, cars, etc. cause they can see better, and also more people are getting mugged/attacked because the extra light makes them feel more confident so they take less precautions than they would on a darker night.

Seemed inexplicable when people thought it was just superstition, but after being demonstrated with evidence, suddenly became very explicable.

Answer 3

Most of the quicky horoscopes you read in the paper are rubbish - they're too general - like saying blondes have more fun. Real astrology takes into account many other factors and can be quite accurate. Find a good local astrologer and make an appointment. She should ask you questions like, where you were born, what time, etc.

Answer 4

**Chuckling** It isn't a load of rubbish. Read up on your astrological sign (and I don't mean the little ones in the newspaper) - I am sure you will find far too many coincidences in your own character. The fact is, if you believe in it - work with it, if you don't - don't.

There is something for everyone. Some choose religion, others astrology, some both, some science. Choose what you choose to believe in.

Answer 5

I don't "believe" in astrology and I don't follow it in any form; however, any system of observations over a long enough time has the potential to identify correlations that might be predictive. Superstition enters when the underlying mechanism is "explained."

A clearer example might be witchcraft. If a person has been taught the correlations observable in nature (e.g., if there are a lot of rabbits this year, there will be a lot of foxes next year... and of course there are far more subtle examples), then they can predict some things about the future quite accurately. These sorts of traditions lose me at the point where they begin the mystical interpretations.

Aloha

Answer 6

Depends on how knowledgeable the astrologer is. Mind you, the inventors of astrology really knew their stuff -- they paved the way for modern astronomy, after all -- but many of their heirs do not.

For example, there's the matter of stellar drift. Stars don't just sit still in the heavens, they move. Given enough time, they will move out of the constellations that they were seen in back in ancient times (some have already done so). The charts for the western Zodiac signs that were written during ancient times are already about a month off for the position of the Sun thanks to stellar drift. Some astrologers compensate for this, but most do not. Most don't know enough astronomy to know that they need to. It's hard for me to give credence to a "science" where that kind of inaccuracy is the industry standard.

Answer 7

I'm mostly in the "load of rubbish" camp. If it meant anything, you would expect people with the same birthday (or close) to be very much alike. I haven't found that to be true in the least. My husband is an Aquarius, my dad a Taurus, my sister a Pisces and my son a Scorpio, and none of their personality traits remotely resemble their "sign".

Funny though. I am a Leo, and I know a number of Leos, and wow--are we ever Leos! All of us!

Rubbish or not, there's no harm in it, I think, unless you use it to guide important life decisions.

Answer 8

I've no idea as to the answer to this question as it is based on aristotlean logic of either or. Yes No. Is it rubbish or meaningful. What makes people living in a quantum age still ask questions like an old greek. Things aren't necessarily opposite or in conflict. The question would better be phrased, what do you think of astrology? that way allowing people their own opinions and not being coralled into one of only 2 possible beliefs you have planted in the answer. So as I say I can't answer your question as it appears. sorry

Answer 9

as sabina_rois points out people have been consulting astrologers for over 6,000 years. people have also been using doctors, engineers, mathematicians, and builders for at least the same sense of time.

medicine, mathematics, engineering and construction skills are true sciences. as people do them (at least if they do them properly) they learn new and better ways of doing things and their techniques improve.

medicine these days is hugely more efficacious than it was in prehistoric europe. so are bridge-building, house-construction, and space-exploration.

think how much more advanced the science is behind the space shuttle than it is behind a catapult. that is how far maths has improves.

astrology hasn't improved at all. astrologers made amazing predictions in ancient greece. sometimes they came true, sometimes they didn't. but the delphic oracle was far more respected than russell grant ever will be (though fat people with poor social skills are obviously going to always respect grant).

no astrologer predicted the asian tsunami - if you can't see something as big as that even a day in advance what point is there?

idiots believe in astronomy - but only idiots.

Answer 10

Complete load of rubbish. It's always written ambiguously enough that people feel some of it might apply to them. Psychics work the same way.

You are the master of your own destiny.