Astrology is a collection of belief systems that assert that there is a connection between astrological phenomena and events or personality traits in the human world. The scientific community has dismissed astrology as having no explanatory power for describing the universe. Scientific testing has discovered no evidence to back up the astrological traditions’ premises or alleged effects.
In This Article...
Is astrology a reliable source of information?
Is astrology accurate? Reading horoscopes is a popular pastime, but is there any scientific evidence that they are accurate?
When you’re enticed by a familiar interruption and your willpower weakens, problems can occur.
Every day, up to 70 million Americans consult their horoscopes. At least, that’s what the American Federation of Astrologers claims. According to a Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life poll conducted twenty years ago, 25% of Americans believe that the positions of the stars and planets have an impact on our daily life. In 2012, the General Social Survey indicated that 34% of Americans think astrology is “extremely” or “kind of scientific,” with the percentage of individuals who think astrology is “not at all scientific” dropping from two-thirds to about half.
Astrology is the concept that astronomical phenomena, such as the stars over your head when you were born or the fact that Mercury is retrograde, have the potential to influence our daily lives and personality traits. Of course, this is distinct from astronomy, which is the scientific study of celestial objects, space, and the physics of the cosmos.
A particular facet of astrology, the foretelling of a person’s future or the provision of daily counsel via horoscopes, is gaining in popularity. The Cut, for example, recorded a 150 percent rise in horoscope page views in 2017 compared to 2016.
Clearly, a lot of people are trying to figure out how to read the stars for guidance. Understanding the positions of the stars is the foundation of astrology, which appears to be a scientific discipline in and of itself. Is there any scientific evidence that astrology has an impact on our personalities and lives?
But, since I still have five minutes of this six-minute podcast to fill, let’s take a look at how astrology has been put to the test.
Is astrology a religion or a belief system?
Astrology, according to hardened scientists, does not work. It does, according to believers. Who is correct? They’re both correct. It depends on your definition of “work.” Astrology is the concept that, depending on when one was born, the alignment of stars and planets influences one’s mood, personality, and environment. Astrologers publish customised horoscopes in newspapers based on a person’s birth date. These horoscopes make predictions about people’s personal situations, define their characters, and offer guidance based on astronomical bodies’ positions. According to a poll done by the National Science Foundation, 41% of people believe astrology is “extremely scientific” or “kind of scientific.” Let’s break down the original query into two more precise questions: 1) Is a person’s life affected by the position of astronomical bodies? 2) Can horoscopes improve people’s moods? These are two completely different questions. Both are scientifically verifiable.
Is it true that the positions of astronomical bodies have an impact on people’s lives (beyond the weather)?
No. Seasons are determined by the sun’s position and orientation in relation to the earth. Anyone who has shoveled snow off his path in January when he would rather be at the beach can attest to the fact that the planets have an impact on our lives. Electromagnetic disturbances caused by solar flares can impair satellites and possibly create outages on Earth. Ocean tides are caused by the moon’s position. If you’re a fisherman, the moon’s location might have a big impact on your livelihood. Beautiful auroras are caused by the solar wind, and sunlight is our planet’s primary source of energy. All of these effects, however, are covered by simple meteorology, not astrology. Astrology claims that, depending on a person’s birth date, astronomical bodies have an impact on their lives beyond fundamental weather patterns. This claim is untrue from a scientific standpoint. Several scientific research have refuted the idea that astronomical bodies have an impact on people’s life based on their birth date. For example, Peter Hartmann and his colleagues looked at nearly 4000 people and discovered no link between birth date and personality or IQ. Shawn Carlson conducted one of the most renowned tests in which he had 28 astrologers give predictions and then verified their accuracy. He fine-tuned the approach before conducting the experiment, ensuring that it was scientifically sound and that all of the astrologers believed the test was fair. He discovered that astrologers were no better at predicting the future than random chance, according to a study published in Nature. These findings are consistent with basic science.
Gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force are the four fundamental forces of nature. When an object interacts with a human, it must do so via one of these fundamental forces. Strong acid, for example, burns your skin because the acid’s electromagnetic fields pull on your skin molecules so intensely that they split apart. Gravity drags a falling boulder onto you, crushing you. Because of nuclear forces, a nuclear bomb will evaporate you. Each of the fundamental forces has the potential to be quite powerful. The issue is that they all die out as time passes. Beyond a few nanometers, nuclear forces decay so quickly that they are effectively nil. Electromagnetic forces can range from nanometers to kilometers in length. Electromagnetic waves (light) can be detected from the boundary of the observable universe by sensitive equipment, although the light is extremely feeble. Although a star’s gravity is technically felt across the cosmos, its unique impact on the universe is limited to its solar system. Polaris’ gravitational attraction on an earthbound human is weaker than the gravitational pull of a gnat flying around his head due to the impact of distance. Similarly, the electromagnetic waves (light) from Sirius that reach an earthbound human’s sight are dimmer than the light from a passing firefly. If stars and planets had an impact on humanity, gnats and fireflies would have an even greater impact. Even if the planets’ gravity was powerful enough to influence you, a literal alignment of the planets would not result in you winning the lottery, for the simple reason that it never happens in the real world.
Yes. But it has nothing to do with the accuracy of the horoscopes. Because of a psychological impact known as the placebo effect, horoscopes make individuals feel better. The placebo effect occurs when a person’s belief in a useless procedure makes them feel better. The improvement is caused by the belief rather than the method. The placebo effect has been shown scientifically. If you offer ten sick people water-only pills and tell them it’s a potent new treatment that will assist them, and then have ten sick patients refuse to take the pills, the patients who take the pills will improve in health over time. Because of the placebo effect, a new treatment must be shown to make patients feel better in addition to making them feel better. It must be demonstrated that it outperforms a placebo. The control group in accurate medical experiments is not a group of untreated patients. The control group, on the other hand, is made up of patients who were given a placebo. The placebo effect is at work when it comes to astrology. A large number of people believe in astrology. They feel better when they read their horoscope and follow its advise. However, it is their belief, not the astrology, that makes them feel better. The placebo effect is used in many pseudoscientific treatments, from crystal healing to homeopathy. Believing in a treatment that doesn’t work may be beneficial, but believing in one that does is much better. Sticking to scientifically proven treatments allows you to reap the benefits of both belief and therapy action. Instead of reading your horoscope first thing in the morning, go for a walk. Exercise has been shown to be beneficial to both the body and the mind, and your belief in its benefits will also aid you.
Topics:
astrology, astronomy, gravity, horoscope, placebo, placebo effect, sign, stars, astrology, astronomy
What is the foundation of astrology?
Many societies have valued astronomical occurrences, and the Indians, Chinese, and Maya built sophisticated systems for forecasting terrestrial events based on celestial observations. The most common kind of astrology in the West is a system of horoscopes that claim to explain parts of a person’s personality and forecast future events in their lives based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other celestial objects at the time of their birth. Such systems are used by the majority of professional astrologers.
What was Jesus’ take on astrology?
I believe that God created astrology as a tool for us to better understand ourselves and to use as a spiritual tool. Numerous bible texts, in my opinion, support astrology. As a Christian, I try to remember what Jesus said. “There shall be signs in the sun, moon, and stars,” Christ predicted in Luke 21:25, referring to the importance of astrology. He explains the value of astrology with his pupils, as well as how it might be used as a sign of his return. Why would Jesus provide us this critical knowledge if we are not intended to understand the energies of the planets and signs, and if he was actually against it? Just as the three wise men knew Jesus would be born under the star in the sky that led them to him lying in the manger, Jesus warned us that when he returns, there will be signals in the sky.
Is there any truth to astrology in Islam?
Astrology is the study of celestial bodies’ movements and relative placements, which are thought to have an impact on human affairs and the natural world. According to historian Emilie Savage-Smith, astrology (ilm al-nujm, “the study of the stars”) was “by far” the most popular of the “many activities aiming to predict future occurrences or perceive hidden phenomena” in early Islamic history.
Despite Islamic prohibitions, some medieval Muslims were interested in studying the apparent motion of the stars. This was partially due to their belief in the importance of the celestial bodies, and partly due to the fact that desert inhabitants frequently traveled at night and relied on knowledge of the constellations for navigation. Muslims needed to determine the time of prayers, the direction the kaaba would face, and the correct orientation of the mosque after the arrival of Islam, all of which helped give a religious impetus to the study of astronomy and contributed to the belief that the celestial bodies had an impact on terrestrial affairs as well as the human condition.
The criteria for Islam’s attitude on astrology are laid out in Islamic jurisprudence, the Quran, the Hadith, Ijma (scholarly consensus), and Qiyas (analogy). The idea is further differentiated into that which is either halal (authorized) or haram (forbidden) (forbidden). The view that astrology is forbidden by the authorities, as enshrined in the Quran and Hadith, is shared by all Islamic sects and academics.
What significance do the signs of the zodiac have?
The 12 signs of the zodiac, as mentioned in a horoscope, are inextricably linked to the Earth’s motion through the sky. The constellations that point out the path that the sun appears to take during the year provide us with these indicators. Dates in a horoscope may appear to match to when the sun travels through each constellation. They don’t always agree, though, because astrology and astronomy are two separate systems. Plus, a closer look at the Earth, the sun, and the stars reveals that the zodiac is more complicated than you might think!
The sun’s motion through the constellations
The sun appears to pass in front of numerous constellations as Earth revolves the sun. The sun’s position in relation to distant background stars drifts in an easterly direction from day to day, much how the moon appears in a little different spot in the sky each night. It’s not as if the sun isn’t moving. Its movement is totally fictitious, owing to Earth’s own rotation around our star.
The sun appears to be in front of, or “in,” different constellations throughout the year. The sun appears in Gemini one month and Cancer the next. The dates in the newspaper’s horoscope indicate when the sun is in a specific astrological sign. For example, the sign Aries is represented by the period between March 21 and April 19. However, your astrological sign does not always indicate which constellation the sun was in when you were born.
Why the zodiac constellations don’t always align with astrological signs
We need to know a little bit more about how the Earth moves to explain why constellations no longer coincide with their respective signs. We must also discuss how we measure time.
Time is a fiendishly difficult concept to grasp, especially if we insist on using the sun and stars as our point of reference. For better or worse, our calendar is based on the seasons. The day the sun appears at its most northerly point in the sky is June 21, the approximate date of the summer solstice north of the equator and the winter solstice south of the equator. The North Pole is most inclined towards the sun at the June solstice.
The fact that the North Pole does not always point in the same direction as the background stars complicates things. Our world whirls around like a top. The Earth, like a top, wobbles! The North Pole traces a circle on the celestial sphere due to the Earth’s wobble. The wobbling is slow; it takes 26,000 years to complete one rotation. However, as time passes, the effect becomes more pronounced.
The direction of the Earth’s axis drifts somewhat throughout the course of one orbit around the sun. This means that the location of the solstice along our orbit changes by a very modest amount. The solstice occurs around 20 minutes before one full trip in front of the background stars!
Our drifting calendars
Because we base our calendar on the solstices and equinoxes (and astrologers on the signs), the Earth does not complete an orbit in a single year. The tropical or seasonal year is really a fraction of a second shorter than one full orbit (sidereal year). This means that the sun’s position in relation to the stars on any particular day varies throughout the year. For example, on June 21, a very small amount of snow falls.
However, after 2,000 years, the sun will be in a completely other constellation!
The sun was nearly halfway between Gemini and Cancer on the June solstice 2,000 years ago. The sun was between Gemini and Taurus on the June solstice fourteen years ago. In the year 4609, the June solstice point will move from Taurus to Aries, leaving Taurus behind.
When humanity formed the present Western zodiac some 2,000 years ago, the signs were roughly aligned with their respective constellations. However, the steady wobble of the Earth’s axis has led the solstice and equinox locations to shift around 30 degrees westward relative to the constellations in the intervening ages. Signs and constellations are currently around one calendar month off. They’ll be approximately two months away in another two thousand years or so.
Modern constellations and the zodiac
To make matters even more complicated, unlike astrological signs, constellations are not all the same size and shape. For the most part, the stars that make up a constellation are not physically related. They’re simply based on patterns that our forefathers noticed when they looked up at the sky, trying to make sense of it all.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) formalized the constellations as sky regions, not just star patterns, in 1930. They established the boundaries we use today as a result of this. These current constellations are based on those introduced in the second century CE by Greek astronomer Ptolemy. He, in turn, took them from Babylonian scriptures dating back thousands of years. Throughout history, several societies have seen patterns in the sky that are unique to them. Some constellations are shared by many cultures (Orion is a good example), but not all.
There are actually 13 constellations that lay along the path of the sun, based on the present borders. Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, sits between Sagittarius and Scorpius and is not mentioned in any horoscope. The signs stay stable in relation to the solstices and equinoxes, while the solstices and equinoxes shift westward in relation to the constellations or backdrop stars.
While the zodiac isn’t a fantastic predictor of love, fortune, or health, it is an excellent tool for better understanding the sun’s, Earth’s, and even the cultures that have come and gone on our small planet. The zodiac signs, which are drawn from constellations that line the path of the sun in the sky, trace Earth’s orbit and wobble and serve as a reminder of astronomy’s humble beginnings.
Bottom line: While you may identify the term zodiac with astrology, it also has a prestigious role in astronomy. The 12 constellations that make up the zodiac are located along the sun’s annual motion across the sky.
Is it true that Christians believe in astrology?
Early Christianity supported astrology, but this support waned during the Middle Ages, despite the fact that it still existed. During the Renaissance, support for it rose once more throughout the West.