Deception or Just Astrology Misconception
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein
As we all know, astrology it is often regard as a pseudoscience. Although this is not the way I see it, I think is referred justly so. After all, advocates often and improperly refer to it as a science. And at the end of the day they do it a disservice—regardless of their better intentions.
I believe there are several arguments against the veracity of astrology as a worthy source of knowledge. I would like to explore some of them as an attempt to question its raison d’être in a sort of philosophical manner. Let’s get started.
The first important aspect I want to tackle is the so weak premise that we were born under some sort of influence stars have on us (western astrology) or that we were born with a set of characteristics which can be represented by popular and common animals (Chinese astrology). You may found this funny—I do think is funny—and I don’t see why that is a bad thing. We shouldn't take this explanations so literal, after all, these stories are just models—a means to an end.
“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts” Albert Einstein
Probably the most common argument will be that there is no tangible evidence nor proof of any of its claims. Well there are many things which we know are true, like the attachment we almost invariably feel towards people who are kind and generous to us, despite lack of a scientific framework to explain it—oxitocin, dopamine and pheromones are not enough understood yet to be used in replacement for abstract terms like love, affection and reciprocity. The message I try to convey here is that there would always be a need for a prior subjective model before a more reliable scientific one become available.
There are many types of astrologies out there, but there are also many types of religions and many types of mythologies. Many people have faith in god, while everybody understand that myths are very inventive, made up tales. I think astrology struggle to gain a place somewhere in the middle. Alluring perhaps at the same necessity that targets religion but also science—trying to explain how people work and what we should be doing with our lives, whether you believe that is doing good to others or merely evolving/surviving as species.
“What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know the answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it make any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.” Albert Einstein
At the same time astrology may also trying to answer a more intimate questions like “How am I as individual?”, “What makes me different to the rest?”. After all responding to those questions will be useful in order to pursue higher purposes as are those impose by religion and evolution.
Every widespread astrology system posses a duality quality to it. Just like statistics, it can be used as a prediction framework as well as an explanatory one. Even tough, I am not an advocate of the former (this might be the topic of another post), I believe the latter carries a lot of truthfulness—at least that is the case for western and specially for Chinese astrology. So, Why don’t you give it a try? In the worst case scenario, it will be a very entertaining (even fun) experience, I assure you.
