Astrology is one of the currently fashionable hobbies. Even those people who are skeptical of her, at least know their zodiac sign. Many people read astrological forecasts in magazines and on the Internet just for fun. Someone takes astrology so seriously that they are ready to pay a lot of money for drawing up an individual horoscope and other services of a professional astrologer.
When people turn to astrologers, they rarely think about the real basis of their "science". The first thing you should ask an astrologer about is how the position of celestial bodies can influence events on Earth and the fate of a particular person in particular.
No astrologer will answer such a question. The maximum that can be heard is vague reasoning that “everything in the world is interconnected” and about some abstract “energies”. One should think about what kind of "energies" are those that so strongly influence people and which until now have not been "noticed" by any scientific instrument.
The absurdity of astrology
One of the common arguments in favor of astrology is its antiquity. Antiquity alone does not guarantee truth. For example, Ptolemy's system is older than Copernicus's, but that doesn't make it true. It can be argued that erroneous ideas were eventually rejected by science, and astrology still exists, therefore, it has stood the test of time.
Indeed, scientific theories are born, develop, become obsolete, give way to new ones. For astrology, such a development is not typical. For example, the direction of the Earth's axis of rotation is slowly shifting (this is called precession). Because of this, the appearance of the starry sky also changes. It looks different now than it did when astrology was born in Babylon. This means that a person born in the period from March 21 to April 20 should read the horoscopes for "Pisces", but modern astrologers still attribute him to the sign "Aries".
During the centuries that astrology existed, people learned a lot about the heavenly bodies. For example, it became known that most of the stars in the constellation Sagittarius are not stars, but distant star clusters, but one of the objects of this constellation (A *) is a supermassive black hole located in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. But these data did not bring anything new to what astrologers say about the influence of the constellation Sagittarius on people. After the discovery of exoplanets, they also did not include these objects in their calculations. It can be argued that these planets are too far away to influence earthly affairs. But the stars that make up the zodiacal constellations are located no closer, and astrologers recognize their influence. Absurd!
Examples of this kind can be continued indefinitely, but the conclusion is obvious: astrology is not a dynamically developing science, but a set of frozen statements. No one would want to see a doctor whose knowledge corresponds to the level of medieval medicine. And for some reason people turn to astrologers, whose "professional" knowledge has not changed for millennia.
Reasons for Believing in Astrology
The absurdity of the theoretical foundations of the activities of astrologers is obvious, nevertheless, people continue to believe them. Astrologers know how to convince the client of the truth of their judgments, but this skill lies not in the field of the starry sky, but in the field of psychology.
“You really need other people to love and admire you. You are pretty self-critical. You have many hidden opportunities that you never used to your advantage … Disciplined and confident in appearance, in fact you tend to worry and feel insecure. " 8 out of 10 people "recognize" themselves in this description.
Such a text was given to his subjects by the American psychologist Bertram Forer. The experiment showed that if you compose a text from vague characteristics that suit every second person, a person will easily take it for a description of his personality, especially if you first give him such an installation. This phenomenon was called the "Barnum effect" - in honor of the famous American showman, known for his deceptions and hoaxes.
It is noteworthy that the scientist did not invent the text for the experiment, but took it from the newspaper horoscope. This is exactly how horoscopes are compiled - both general and individual. It is especially important to include statements that flatter the client's self-esteem (“you have hidden opportunities,” etc.), this further reduces critical thinking. However, people who turn to astrologers are rarely critical.
People love what astrologers have to offer. They not only give specific practical advice, but also increase self-esteem: they find "hidden abilities" in unremarkable people, help to feel like "a part of the Universe."
This “uplifting deception” can be costly. By listening to astrological recommendations, a person changes his destiny, and not always for the better. For example, astrologers undertake to assert which signs of the zodiac are compatible in marriage and which are not. One can only guess how many happy weddings did not take place because of such "constructive advice". Pseudoscience has never been of any use to anyone.
