Is Astrology Accurate?

Escaping horoscopes and “astrological predictions” is impossible in our daily lives. It’s everywhere and people talk about it all the time. What many people don’t understand or choose to ignore is that astrology is a pseudoscience. So why is astrology wrong? What is the problem with astrology? Is it scientific? Or is it just hoax?

“There are two ways to view the stars; as they really are and as we might wish them to be”- Carl Sagan.

WHAT IS ASTROLOGY?

Astrology is a pseudoscience that studies the relation between position of astronomical objects and events on earth. Astrologers claim that alignment of stars and planets affect every individual’s mood, personality and environment based on when he was born.

There is a vast difference between how astronomers and astrologers look at the stars. One unveils the truth, another claims to know everything without evidence. We all know which one is more popular!

PROBLEMS WITH ASTROLOGY

• It’s highly likely that you know your zodiac sign and why wouldn’t you? It is engrained in our brains because we run into horoscopes every single day. On your birthday, watch where the sun rises. It will pass through one of the 12 constellation of zodiac. They say I’m an Aquarius. So I would expect the sun to rise in the constellation Aquarius; except, it doesn’t. It did, around 2000 years ago when the Babylonians laid all these out. It doesn’t now. The earth has wobbled like a top in the last 2000 years. Now on my birthday, the sun rises in the constellation of Capricorn. Astrologers are off by one full sign. In the next 2000 years, they’ll be off by two signs. Tells you a lot about their credibility! Also You might just be looking at the wrong horoscope!
• One important question people rarely ask is how the alignment of planets and stars can affect their day to day lives. There is no way for the light from the astronomical objects to reach the closed room where the baby is conceived. Only thing that affects the baby is the gravity of those objects but the effect of the force would be lesser than what the obstetrician exerts. It is due to their huge distance from earth even though they are massive. There’s no evidence that these objects affect our daily lives in anyway whatsoever.
• Twins are interesting. They are born only a few minutes apart. The stars and the planets are aligned in the exact same way at the time of their birth. It is seen in few cases that one twin dies young due an accident or a deadly disease but the other one grows up to live a long and healthy life. Astrologers who claim to predict the future based on time of birth are proved to be fraud based in this scenario.
• The math to determine the position of the planets and time of transits and eclipses by astrologers are correct in most cases. Indians are serious about this stuff. However, their claims are not backed up by scientific evidence. The odds of getting a prediction right is almost the same as leaving it up to chance.

VAGUENESS OF THE PREDICTIONS

The predictions made by the astrologers are pretty vague. It can apply to anyone at any point of time. The Barnum effect explains why extremely general statements, such as your horoscope, seem so specific to you.

People tend to believe in generalised statements such as combination of wishful thinking and hopelessness. Basically, each time we read our horoscope, we’re exposing our naivety, egotism and human gullibility. People want to believe what they read is true rather than questioning the credibility of the statement. We are not immune to Barnum effect. All we can do is to be aware and approach these predictions with scientific method.

In many cases, it is also seen that the horoscopes of different newspapers in the same city contradict one another in spite of being vague and that tells you a lot about the credibility of the astrologers and their claims.

STUDIES AND EXPERIMENTS ON ASTROLOGY

• Shawn Carlson conducted an experiment called “Double blind test of astrology” in which 28 astrologers agreed to match over 100 natal charts to psychological profiles generated by California Psychological Inventory. The results were published in the prestigious journal “Nature” in 1985. The study found that predictions based on natal astrology were no better than chance, and that the testing “clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis.”
• Another large scale experiment was conducted by scientist and former astrologer Geoffrey Dean and psychologist Ivan Kelly which involved more than hundred cognitive, behavioural, physical and other variables but found no support for astrology. 45 confident astrologers with an average experience of 10 years were involved in further tests along with 160 subjects. The astrologers performed much worse than merely basing decisions off the individuals’ ages, and much worse than 45 control subjects who didn’t use birth charts at all.
• James Randi’s famous astrology test showed that the assertions of astrology are so general and open for interpretation that we can always find a way to see it in a factual way. Participants were given specific horoscope based on when and where they were born. After reading, they all rated their horoscope as very or extremely accurate. Then they were passed their neighbour’s horoscope and found that they all had the same exact one.

ASTRONOMER’S VIEW ON ASTROLOGY

Astronomer (not astrologer) Phil Plait sums up astrology perfectly in his blog-

• There is no force, known or unknown that could possibly affect us here on earth the way astrologers claim. Known forces weaken too fast, letting one source utterly dominate (the Moon for gravity, the sun for electromagnetism). An unknown force would allow asteroids and extrasolar planets to totally overwhelm the nearby planets.
• Astrologers tend to rely on our ability to remember hits and forget misses. Even an accurate prediction may be simple chance.
• Study after study has shown that claims and predictions made by astrologers have no merit. They are indistinguishable from chance, which means astrologers cannot claim to have some ability to predict your life’s path.
• There is harm, real harm, in astrology. It weakens further people’s ability to rationally look at the world, an ability we need now more than ever.

Astrology started out as a way of looking at stars and interpreting what they signify but it changed overtime (still as wrong as the starting period though). Carl Sagan spoke about pseudoscience of astrology - “Astrology developed into a strange discipline; a mixture of careful observation, mathematics and record keeping with fuzzy thinking and bias fraud. Nevertheless, astrology survived and flourished. Why? Because it seems to lend a cosmic significance to the routine of our daily lives. It pretends to satisfy our longing to feel personally connected with the universe. Astrology suggests a dangerous fatalism. If our lives are controlled by a set of traffic signals in the sky, why try to change anything?”

CONCLUSION

Simple truth is astrology is wrong and isn’t backed up by any scientific evidence. Leading our lives based on vague horoscopes is dangerous. It limits our ability to think rationally and logically. People are repeatedly fooled by astrologers and their claims which is a big concern. Perhaps, it would be best if astrology is denied completely and we lead our lives based on our own ability to determine right from wrong.

Thank you for reading. Let me know your thoughts on astrology in the comment section below.

Keep on being curious, folks!