What do you think of astrology?

[camelliavi]

Posting in AIBU for traffic. Not the mystic meg astrology, but birth charts, rising, sun, moon etc. I'm a Scorpio rising, Virgo cusp/libra sun and Taurus moon- after looking up what they meant they're strangely accurate just curious to know!

moo [

Posted too soon

Moo

There is some evidence that the time of year you are born can affect your health possibly due to seasonal factors such as vitamin d and exposure to allergens or viruses

Well billions of people do believe in god. Such beliefs used to control people’s lives and societies were based on this. Still are in huge swathes if the world.

Yet nobody has any evidence of god whatsoever. At least people can see the moon and planets. They know it affects the tides and the menstrual cycle. I know what makes more sense to me.

I followed astrology religiously from a very young age and used to dabble in giving people readings based on date and time of birth.
I was young, impressionable and found something that I was very good at and other gullible people loved to hear things about themselves and ate it up.

I'm now utterly embarrassed by this and obviously know that it's pure bollocks but people still try and get me to do readings at parties - around intelligent people who thought I was intelligent.

The thing is I still automatically analyse people when I find out their DOB, it's a force habit. Realising is like escaping a cult that you were born into .

Loved it in my younger days.
Would look at it for fun, now.

"Not the Mystic Meg astrology..."

It is though. You can dress it up with as many scientific-looking charts and graphs as you like, it's still bullshit.

Load of old cobblers.

They know it affects... the menstrual cycle.
No, it doesn't.

Well billions of people do believe in god. Such beliefs used to control people’s lives and societies were based on this. Still are in huge swathes if the world.

But none of that is evidence for the existence of any gods. How do we know that the moon causes the tides? Do you have the same weight of evidence for the moon causing one twelfth of the population to have a lucky find on Wednesday and a significant event associated with the letter H?

bullshit

The lack of appreciation for the Scientific Approach is scary. A belief in astrology may seem harmless but the same abandonment of truth leads to shit like anti-vaxers, Trump and Brexit.

Google Youtube Carl Sagan on Astrology for a much funnier and clever take on it than I could manage. Utter codswallop the lot of it, of course.

Utter bollocks.

Compared to the 80s, when every daytime tv show, every newspaper and every magazine had a regular astrology column, it seems to have almost completely dropped out of fashion, you hardly ever see them any more. And it’s years since I was asked what my star sign is. Must be one of the few areas where we’ve become more rational as a culture and not less.

I just think you have to be unbelievably self-absorbed and self-important to think that the movements of stars that are millions of light years away from you have any bearing on your tiny, insignificant little life.

A simple way to be objective it is to think of other people you know who share your star sign. I don't mean friends and family, who you're likely to have something in common with for other reasons, but work colleagues, neighbours etc. or people in the public eye such as politicians.

Say you're a Gemini - lots in common with Boris Johnson? What about that random woman at the other end of the office whose birthday cakes appeared a few days before yours? How about Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper? Marilyn Monroe? Queen Victoria?

ScreamingValenta - even easier example: identical twins. Same dna and star sign so why do they often lead contrasting lives?

It also makes me laugh how they use such outdated star charts - leaving out all the celestial bodies that have been discovered in the past hundred years or so. Why?

They are just Barnum statements and people make good money from doing them, because people believe in them.

Barnum statements are great for astrology.
We fully accept the points that agree with our own perceptions of ourselves.

Any statements that we may question, we either justify it or just gloss over it.

The following is a description of one of the star signs personality. Do you agree with these statements about yourself:
you are very supportive of the people in your life
you will go through all possible elements of thinking before making a decision. You do not like to mess up, so you will look at all sides before giving a solution
you know good things come to those who earn it, which is why you will work hard to get everything you want

What do you think?
Here is a challenge, give a friend/relative the same statements you read about yourself. Only ask them if this fits them. I guarantee they'll say its accurate about them to

I’m a Pisces, and my personality, behaviour etc, fits spot on to what they say about that star sign. I don’t fit any other star sign, like someone above said you could.

I think it's entertaining bollocks and you'd get more insight into my life and personality by asking my cats. And they have brains the size of walnuts and think I control the weather.

Well my very scientific view is that we are made of the same minerals as those found in the stars and everything comes from the Big Bang so it wouldn’t surprise me if things are interrelated and actually I’m sure they are.

Not minerals exactly, but yes we are all made from the same elements found throughout the universe.

So are river lampreys, ants, sparrows and naked mole rats - are they all Geminis, Leos etc. too?

And FWIW I’m a Leo and nothing like the stereotypical traits associated with that sign. Maybe I was born under a retrograde comet? Or maybe it’s all just bollocks...

For those who think the moon is affecting the tides and must therefore affect us too - of course it does. But not in some mystical, cult of personality way. The moon is large enough to have a gravitational effect which means water bulges outward slightly on the side of the world closest to the moon, causing high tide. The moon exerts a gravitational pull over us too, but we don’t notice it because it is insignificant compared to the pull of the earth.

It really has nothing to do with your character or preferences or behaviour. It’s just a feature of gravity, one of the four fundamental forces of the universe.