Astrology
From RationalWiki
"If you are in possession of this revolutionary secret of science,
why not prove it and be hailed as the new Newton?
Of course, we know the answer. You can't do it. You are a fake."
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
Astrology is the belief that people's lives are controlled by the position of the sun, moon, and planets at the time of their birth.
This widely believed idea has never produced any worthwhile predictions, in spite of having several different formulations across disparate cultures.
It is an excellent example of woo.
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[edit] The scientific point of view
The scientific view, in the most candid form, is that astrology is a load of nonsense perpetrated by ignorant fools or those wishing to exploit others. It is, for lack of a better word, crap. However, in the interest of neutrality, the scientific point of view will be spread out below, but will come to the same conclusion: astrology = crap.
There is no known mechanism whereby a person could be significantly influenced by distant celestial bodies. The fundamental natural forces are the strong and weak nuclear forces, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force. The strong and weak nuclear forces are not applicable to interactions between people and objects such as planets or stars.
Newton's law of gravitation can be used to show that at its closest approach to Earth, the planet Mars exerts approximately the same gravitational force on a person as a 50 ton, fully-loaded big rig placed 15 meters from that same person. The star Alpha Centauri A has a mass of 1.1 solar masses and is one of the three stars closest to Earth, yet its gravitational pull on a person is comparable to that of a 100 gram cellphone at 9 meters.
Electrostatic forces also become negligible at these astronomical distances.
Whatever the mysterious force may be that astrologists claim to cause the effects of the movements of the celestial bodies on human physiology, it is not backed up by scientific research.
[edit] Value to science
Like many protosciences, astrology provided the original foundation of the modern science of astronomy. As natural scientists started trying to understand what the bright things we see in the sky are, where they are, and their relationship to each other, astrology was able to provide some thousands of years of observations to develop hypotheses from.
Also, to a lesser extent, accurate "horoscopes" of figures in the past and clear mentions of what were then "astrological" events may help modern historians with efforts to assign accurate dates to the past.
[edit] Ken-style quote mining
| “ | What utter madness in these astrologers, in considering the effect of the vast, slow movements and change in the heavens, to assume that wind and rain have no effect at birth! | ” |
| —Marcus Tullius Cicero, 44 B.C.E | ||
[edit] See also
[edit] Completely bullshit external links
None of these links are endorsed by RationalWiki but are presented (for your amusement only) as examples of the genre.
- The Book of World Horoscopes - Horoscopes for every country in the world
