Why do people believe in astrology when it’s obvious its utter nonsense?
Why do people believe in astrology when it’s obvious its utter nonsense? A question I answered on Quora.
Questions on astrology like this one come up frequently on Quora – and they will no doubt come up again. And it doesn’t matter how often astrologers (like me) offer a professional opinion on the matter; it goes in one ear and out the other.
So your assertion that it’s “obvious its utter nonsense” is based on what!?
It would perhaps suggest you’ve looked into astrology to form your opinion on it – or are you just following the crowd, condemning something you know little about? You would surely have given it a fair hearing to be so cock-sure of your judgement.
Well, let’s not beat around the bush here. I’ll wager, if you’ve looked into any part of astrology, it is “star signs” that you’ve had a cursory look at – and probably your own star sign doesn’t fit with what you know of yourself. No surprise there if only relying on the sign the Sun is in for your judgement.
Pop astrology
We’re talking about the pop version of astrology, that you can find in newspapers, magazines and on the Web. You don’t have to use too many brain cells to form an opinion about it. It’s entertainment! It was designed to sell newspapers – and a lot of people like you have bought into it thinking it is the extent of astrology.
Pop astrology is about as near to modern Western astrology as calling what metal detector enthusiasts get up to, is archaeology. There is a link but only a slim one.
On belief. I don’t believe in (Western) astrology. Rather I know (because I have been involved with it for many years) it is a powerful holistic system that actually works.
The questionner replied: It’s nonsense because it’s not backed by science. As in facts and logic.
It is “not backed by science.” Don’t be so naive to believe that “science” (run by people afterall) operates without prejudice when evaluating other systems of belief – especially those that rub up against its own beliefs.
Science in its religious form (that is scientism) seeks to endorse a worldview that is mechanistic and materialistic in nature.
That it won’t back the holistic-spiritual system of astrology, is a given. My view is, that it’s “a given” no matter what research findings are provided to science – that speak to the contrary…
Michel Gauguelin’s massive research is a case in point. Where the people of scientism went out of their way to destroy his work – and paint him into a corner as someone whose research was not to be trusted. They failed miserably to begin with but got there in the end.
Regarding “facts and logic.” Astrology does run on facts and logic but not Newtonian facts and logic. It runs on the facts and logic of symbolical relationship. It is holistic in nature and therefore invokes variables in outcome that are a lot more complex to decipher than the simple and repeatable cause and effect requirements of the scientific method.
In that regard it is similar to relationship as described in quantum mechanics. It occurs to me that scientism hasn’t thus far learnt much from what is going on in its own backyard.
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