Astrology: The study of stars and planets in the belief that they influence our behaviour and personality based on star signs and the zodiac. Astronomy: The scientific study of the cosmos using telescopes, Physics, and Mathematics.
So, what do we make of astrology in the 21st century - is it sense or nonsense?
Click here: for Carl Sagan's perspective
17 comments:
At 5:20, he basically summarizes why people are interested in astrology and why its hung around for so long. The Vagueness of these "predictions" means that in 24 hours, your bound to come across a instance where you could insert the predicition into a decision in your life...
Occaisonally I do look at my horoscope (Pisces ftw!) but really its just for the fun of it... And more of mockery of how I'll never come across that situation rather than believing and remembering it.
Its pure nonesense, and people should be able to see through it. And they do, but for some reason astrology just seems to hang around... But at the same time alot of other purely silly collections of theories hang around nowadays aswell... But I wont go into detail. Purely nonesensical.
Interesting video, but not all true. Horoscopes have always been fake (in my opinion since I rarely look at them), so in part, I agree.
In the other part, Astrology did not evolve from thin air, and theories and suspicions, it evolved from dedicated minds. Today's Astrology is nonsense, but some aspects of Astrology in the past are true, and are very thoughtful.
The video was a nice documentary, and concluding with Astrology being nonsense in the present.
Interesting insight on astrology. The video had some good points.
However, I do not believe in Horoscopes, because I don't believe my life is planned out for me in the stars and space! I am not, however, biased and would listen to what other people have to say about the subject without mockery but with actual interest.
I think Horoscopes are written for people who are not very sure of themselves or their pathways in life. Perhaps horoscopes give them a new perspective on life as well as a purpose.
And also, I think that some people follow horoscopes so blindly that they might actually do something or think something to make the days' predictions to come true.
Astrology itself, I believe is quite thoughtful, interesting and insightful, evolved from the past's brilliant minds who something other than the subtle particles in space!
Saw something* :p
Payam,
The term you were perhaps looking for is "self-fulfilling prophecy" - when you believe something will happen so you make it happen. I once knew a student whose parents believed he was born on an "inauspicious" day, therefore he was cursed. They constantly told him he was unlucky and stupid. He grew up believing it; and throughout his childhood behaved in a "stupid" manner. Very sad story.
interesting. personally I don't really believe in astrology, I guess i can't really comment about why it was such a craze back in the day but presently all I can say judging by whatever I see in newspapers and on the TV are such general simple predictions, I don't think you can even call them predictions!! they are so vague, everyday common sense problem solving methods. although I have to admit that when I see the astrology column I run to read it and maybe as Payam said we as humans are quiet inquisitive and seek to know before our time, we look for some sign of certainty or some comfort! has it ever been accurate? maybe once but then again with such open ended statements it is bound to be true!
This was very interesting.
Just like Duwane, I check my horoscope whenever I can out of curiosity. Maybe if it wasn't such a common question between us humans: What's your zodiac sign?, then I wouldn't be so curious.
The most informative thing for me in this video was not that the horoscopes are general,or nonsense, but WHY we attach such importance to our daily horoscopes. Basically, the sun (a star) gave us life and so every star must be worth something far more than juts satisfying our scientific curiosity about the way the universe functions. Each star and planet must mean something to us, it must be of some influence on our lives.
Also, it's fairly easy to draw parallels with the phenomenon of psychics in this case. Some people feel like they need definition in their lives, they need someone or something to outline a path for them to take, hence they believe in astrologists or psychics or fortune tellers.
I would say that astrology is absolute rubbish. Just look at the 'prediction' he reads out from the New York Post. Compromise will help ease tension. That's the sort of information you can get from WordWeb, or any dictionary for that matter. The New York Daily News said 'Demand more of yourself'. Most probably, the only individuals who never do that are infants who can't even read the astrology section of a newspaper. Like I said earlier on, astrology is 100% pure hogwash.
Well to tell you the truth, astrology is, pardon my bluntness, rubbish.. have you seen the daily horiscopes? They're almost always positive and extremely general. Infact people only read them for amusement or in the hope that it comes true, and actually if it does, it's just a coincidence. Also, when you're told your personality graph according to star sign, it's just to make yourself feel better because generally it says good things, but think about it, how is it possible for about 1 billion cancerians to have the same personalities? I'd have an identity crisis if that statement was true XD Furthermore, in India, we call on "pundits" to read our horiscopes and predict our jobs etc, it's bogus! I've watched 5 different pundits tell me 10 different things, it's really annoying actually because people trully believe them! In short, stars can't be deciding factors of our personalities or lives and it is all mere coincidence when a prediction comes true.
I believe in astrology. Not the things you see at the back of a newspaper though. Their in it for the money, and degrade astrology. Nothing was made without a reason. *Agreeing with Mo Nour El Din*
Maybe. Over the years, people took advantage of this knowledge till one point, it became non sense.
Honestly I’ve never believed in astrology…. How could stars decide your faith!!!
I agree with Duwane I do look at horoscopes because it’s entertaining but as far as I remember none of it has ever been genuine.
My friend wore this lucky chain because an astrologer told her to, he told her “it will improve you grades”…………and it didn’t work at all in fact her grades went down than before.
In conclusion: astrology is bogus.
Interesting analogies between astronomy and astrology.
I agree with Ishita, I read the horoscope just for the amusement and 98% of my friends do so for the same reason too.
I think it's amusing what people can come up with these days.
Well astrology is very interesting but I personally do not believe in it. I do have a glance once in a while at horoscopes and sometimes I think they just rephrase the words and put it in the newspaper which is basically fake writing. I was reading an article where an astrologer was just reusing her writings of one year for every year. Everyone has a different future, we are all not going to do the same thing so how can millions of people for one star say Cancer have the same future for the day. It's not possible!
I have never believed in astrology and I still don't.I have read horoscopes quite a few times-for entertainment-but I have stopped because I think astrology is total nonsense.Its all false.
Aisha Bashir
10g2
Astrology doesnt tell you whats going to happen to you on a particular day. It gives you an idea of what your stars tell. You cant have a 100,000 people doing exactly the same things on the same day. Astrology isnt done this way. Not when you're sitting on an arm chair and guessing how a day would be for someone. It goes through things that most of Us dont even know about. Why would someone even care about whats going to happen to someone else tomorrow? You cant just says its non sense. Well, astrology seems to be one way of earning money, and there are many people who pretend to be astrologers and predict future probably thats the reason most of you dont believe in it. There are more fake astrologers than real and so it becomes hard to tell if astrology is true or not.
I could only listen half through it. It was simply getting on my nerves. I really, really dont believe in astrology and neither astronomy. Yes, I do read the horoscope columns in newspapers but only for fun. I dont understand how people could take this seriously. Sagan's talk about Saturn being relevant to evil and mistrust, and Mars being a warrior, I could only roll my eyes at him...!
I think that astrology exist in the 21st century because people are nowadays insecure about themselves and their future so they turn towards astrology for insurance. Sometimes what the horoscopes claim for each star sign comes true only because the horoscope predictions are so vague and also that if we believe the predictions, for example that today is going to be a bad day for the Virgo star sign then eventually it will. The ability to change our behavior or future any time is in our hands and not by the movements of stars and planets.
If we read our daily horoscope it should not be taken seriously or depend our days according to the predictions made but it should be just read for fun and as soon as we reach the back cover page of the magazine or newspaper we should forget all about it. Astrology predictions should be a motivation for the people who browse through this column every day or every week rather than be negative and de-motivate people.
I like the point made in the video about twins who are born on the same time, place, etc and can have completely dissimilar lives and opposite life styles and personalities.
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