Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold. What have we to offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Insecurity!
-Isaac Asimov in the issue of The Skeptical Inquirer
The term pseudoscience means “a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method.” Astrology is a widespread pseudoscience and every newspaper publishes a daily horoscope and a distressing number of people seem to accept at least some of its ancient claims.
Astrology says that the gravitational attraction of planets at the time of one’s birth somehow has an effect on one’s future. The gravitational force an object exerts on a body is proportional to the object’s mass but inversely proportional to the square of the distance of the object from the body. Let’s take an example of a new born baby and obstetrician. The gravitational pull of the delivering obstetrician far outweighs that of the planets involved since the distance between the baby and the obstetrician is in inches at the time of the birth. So, if one considers the square of the distance between the baby and the obstetrician vs the distance between the planets, one can find out there is no pull of the planets on the new born at all.
Another way of looking at it:
Every full moon and new moon, the oceans shrink and expand by the means of low and hide tides. This is due to the gravitational pull of the moon. The mass of the water in the ocean is way higher than that of the baby, so gravitational pull of moon does work on the ocean waters.
Then, I wonder why so many people believe in astrology? One obvious reason is that people read into the generally vague astrological pronouncements. They’re also more likely to remember true “predictions”, overvalue coincidences, and ignore everything else. During individual sessions astrologers pick up on clues about one’s personalities from their facial expressions, mannerisms, body language etc making it very credible pseudoscience. Astrology today is a multi billion dollar business around the world and people keep falling to these unproven believes and false claims.
The best antidote to astrology in particular and to pseudoscience in general is real science, whose wonders are amazing and real.
Astrology has stopped so many people from doing they had to do on time. I hope your post sheds light of knowledge on those who believe in superstition. Very nice.