Pseudoscience Extra: Horoscopes

Earlier this year, there was quite a controversy about a shift in the position of the planets that would cause a shift in astrology as we know it. The good news is that astrology has no merit and any change is only important to believers in this sort of thing. People forget that our concepts of time and the calendar are entirely arbitrary. Why are months thirty to thirty-one days long with the exception of February? Why not twenty-four months of about fifteen days to constitute a year? Take it up with Pope Gregory. Back to astrology, I am a Gemini because I was born on June 15th. It gets even more complicated depending on how involved you get with astrology considering rising signs, houses and other classifications. I’m sure that millions of other people who are nothing like me in temperament have the same Gemini – June 15th designation. < I love how these profiles never give you any bad news, something like “all people born on June 15th are rude, stupid and smell terrible.” What do all of us born on June 15th really have in common? Nothing or everything depending on your perspective. As Margaret Mead said, “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” Also, the information that a horoscope contains is laughably vague and can be interpreted and applied countless ways. My horoscope has never said anything as specific or useful as, “Steve, wear comfortable shoes today because you will find yourself waiting in a long line at the supermarket.” Horoscopes are vague because they have to be to be enjoyed by millions of people who were born at the same time of year as you.

Much like explanations, sometimes the simplest scientific experiments are the best. Carl Sagan performed an elegantly simple experiment to disprove the validity of the ever vague horoscope on his classic PBS series, Cosmos. He compared the horoscopes from various newspapers in New York City from the same day and found them all to be not only vague but conflicting in content. You can watch this segment from Cosmos below.

Visit the three websites below and see if you get the same prediction. You won’t and never will. The following are are links to my horoscope for today from yahoo.com’s Shine website, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s website and mydailymoment.com. All different, all conflicting and all vague. To paraphrase Sagan from the video above, there are no stoplights in the sky that control our lives and the stars do not give special meaning to the mundane. No website, newspaper or special reading by an Astrologer can give anyone any real future knowledge.

So the shift mentioned earlier doesn’t matter. If I became a Cancer instead of a Gemini what would that really mean for me, or anyone for that matter? I might as well be a Flubarg born in the year of the Spigwack. I think the picture below puts this concept in perspective fairly well.

http://fakescience.tumblr.com/post/2797965655/the-new-zodiac

References and Links (All on-line information retrieved July 28, 2011)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/us/15zodiac.html?_r=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/june-15-birthday-astrology.htm

http://www.interculturalstudies.org/Mead/biography.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081846/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iunr4B4wfDA

http://shine.yahoo.com/astrology/gemini/daily-extended/20110728/

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/28/3251718/horoscopes-for-thursday-july-28.html

http://www.mydailymoment.com/horoscope/gemini/?date=2011-07-28&

http://fakescience.tumblr.com/post/2797965655/the-new-zodiac

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