Horoscopes & Astrology regarded as scientific?

Question

Some people think they are, others not. What do you think?

Answer 1

I think that anyone who believes that the position of the planets among the stars can affect their lives in any way whatsoever is desperately trying to find some explanation for the apparently random world.

Rather than looking to the planets and stars to explain one's life, one should look to one's own actions and attitudes. Don't abdicate responsibility for your own life by blaming the stars.

Answer 2

Of course it is not scientific, and no one should base their decisions or mood on astrology or any other future-telling method. However, it can be fun and the star signs somehow influence people's personalities. I don't know how, there is no scientific way of explaining it, but statistically some signs have certain characteristics that are very obvious. And I also have to point out that the great Kepler called astrology "astronomy's little daughter, who is responsible for feeding her mother", because he was writing horoscopes to get money in order to fulfil his scientific (astronomical) research.

Answer 3

They are bunk, hokum, phony. People that believe in this stuff are foolish.

Think about it - astrology says that your personality is controlled by the planet or star overhead at the time you were born. How does that star or planet control you? With gravity? With light? There are no other possibilities.

If it's gravity, think about this - the planets are tens of millions of miles away. Their gravitational pull on you is less than that of your neighbor's car. Yet nobody says you're a kind, compassionate, energetic person because your neighbor drives a Honda, do they?

If you think it's light, then now come nobody can use a flash light and make you rob a bank or sing opera?

Forget about astrology - use common sense instead.

One last comment: The magician James Randi has a one million dollar prize waiting for anyone who can demonstrate psychic powers, magical ability, ESP, or who can predict the future in a laboratory setting. It's been there for years. Nobody - not one single astrologer, psychic, or medium - has collected a dime. Hardly any of them will even try. They know that they'll be made to look like fools.

Answer 4

I think that deciding whether something is scientific is NOT a matter of opinion. Science is not about opinion. It is about empirical observation of nature. If there are people that think astrology is scientific, then they are wrong, simple as that, and their opinion counts for nothing.

In order to be scientific, astrologers would have to follow the scientific method. On the one hand, they would have to actually measure planetary positions and their correlations with personality traits. They don't actually do this. They simply make shite up. On the other hand, they would be obligated to formulate a theory of astrology, which could predict personality traits based on simple first principles and which could be tested against known data and would make predictions of future observations that have not yet occurred (such as, perhaps, the effects of a planet not yet discovered--- in fact, if personality traits do depend on planetary positions, then astrologers should have been able to discover Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, and Sedna before the astronomers did simply by analyzing periodic changes in personalities). They do not actually do this. They just make shite up.

And finally, just *try* going to an astrologer and asking whether it would be ok to use their predictions in a scientific experiment and see where it gets you. Their typical reaction ("it won't work if you don't believe in it," or even "scientific scrutiny will screw it up") is a sure sign of what is really going on: fleecing the ignorant masses of their hard-earned money by making shite up.

Answer 5

This is pseudo-science, not science. I studied Astrology at a good school, and I have done many horoscopes, so my opinion is an expert one. I have concocted some predictions just from my imagination that are as correct as the best ones from astrology. Some horoscopes are so general that they apply to anyone. I have seen several people read the wrong ones in newspapers and say they were quite accurate. Believers see only parts that happen to be somewhat correct and ignore many more that are wrong. If I make dozens of predictions just from imagination, some will be true, and if anyone sees only them, he believes I am a great predictor of future events.

Answer 6

No, they are not. Horoscopes are cheap cons that even many astrologers think are garbage. Astrology itself rather conspicuously lags behind astronomy in terms of prediction and discovery, and is inherently unscientific.

Answer 7

Astrology is pure hogwash. It was invented to bilk people out of their money by telling them something that they wanted to hear and then making them pay for the pretty words.

Astronomy is a real science.

You should ask your question on the Astrology site where the idiots hang out.

Answer 8

Horoscopes and astrology are not and were never scientifc. Most people confuse astrology with astronomy.

Answer 9

Astrology is complete and utter garbage and only fools believe in it. The horoscope casters certainly don't believe. They just want your money.

Answer 10

Are you telling me you think Russell Grant is in any way scientific.....

Physics and Chemistry are 'proven' sciences - Astrology is just made up by dreamers who actually wish they could be real scientists.