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Being an Indian citizen and especially from the southern state of Kerala, it's tough to not believe in astrology. It's considered a science in ancient times and

Being an Indian citizen and especially from the southern state of Kerala, it's tough to not believe in astrology. It's considered a science in ancient times and a significant energy was spent on perfecting the art/science. For e.g. refer to Kerala school of mathematics, which had done some pretty significant work before Calculus was discovered in Europe and that period most of the mathematicians were also astronomers as well as astrologers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_School_of_Astronomy_and_Mathematics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_School_of_Astronomy_and.... My own uncle is an Astrologer and sometimes he makes pretty accurate predictions. He is a retired professor and he does it for a hobby and not for monetary reasons. I don't have a scientific explanation for how it works, but would love to apply some statistics/ML learning with reliable public data available on well known persons whose time and date of birth is published and find a scientific correlation, if at all it exists.

freddex 7y ago
Well, speaking strictly logically: If they were both astronomers and astrologers, and their astronomy was sound, it does not mean that their astrology was, too. Many great scientists of the past were religious, and yet that is no proof of god. It's just hard for me to see how astrology could work. Either the movement of the stars affects the fate of individual humans everywhere, in a weird semantic connection ("Mars, the bringer of war" and so on), or people seek out astrologers to confirm whatever they need confirmed (Confirmation bias). This just seems massively more likely and doesn't clash with anything in the scientific framework. Astrology simply plays into all the biases everyone is affected by, so I don't mean to belittle anyone who believes or practices it, but it can't be called a science in any sense of the word.
- derangedHorse 7y ago
  Speaking logically you also can’t discredit any logic behind it as well, just like one wouldn’t be able to discredit a religion. To know that human behavior is not affected by the stars requires an understanding of the human mind not yet attained
jmcqk6 7y ago
It's not too difficult to test the accuracy under more rigorous conditions. Make sure you record the predictions ahead of time. Decide ahead of time what would need to happen in order to consider the predictions 'accurate.' Wait, and then record which ones turned out to meet their 'accurate' criteria. Deciding ahead of time what would be considered accurate or not is key, because otherwise practically anything can be justified with post-hoc reasoning. The other thing that happens is that the predictions are not very specific. Here is an example. Taken from a horoscope for me today: "The answer will be right there waiting for you." There is no indication what the question is. Just that there is an answer. What's the utility of this? Well there are millions of ways this "prediction" can come true. The chances of something happening any day that fits that criteria is high, and I think most days I'm dealing with an answer to something. So this prediction is meaningless. Here are some levels of specificity: You are going to have a misunderstanding with a friend today. You are going to have a misunderstanding with your closest friend today. You are going to have a misunderstanding about food with your closest friend today. You are going to have a misunderstanding about peanuts with your closest friend today. You are accidentally going to give peanuts to your closest friend today, who will have an allergic reaction. Keep an epi-pen near. I think it's pretty clear that astrology will never deliver a prediction at the level of that last statement, which also happens to be the most falsifiable and most useful. Everything about astrology is really a tool to try to shift your perspective. This can be very useful, which it why it maintains it's popularity. But it has nothing to do with actually telling the future.

freddex 7y ago

Well, speaking strictly logically: If they were both astronomers and astrologers, and their astronomy was sound, it does not mean that their astrology was, too. Many great scientists of the past were religious, and yet that is no proof of god. It's just hard for me to see how astrology could work. Either the movement of the stars affects the fate of individual humans everywhere, in a weird semantic connection ("Mars, the bringer of war" and so on), or people seek out astrologers to confirm whatever they need confirmed (Confirmation bias). This just seems massively more likely and doesn't clash with anything in the scientific framework. Astrology simply plays into all the biases everyone is affected by, so I don't mean to belittle anyone who believes or practices it, but it can't be called a science in any sense of the word.

derangedHorse 7y ago
Speaking logically you also can’t discredit any logic behind it as well, just like one wouldn’t be able to discredit a religion. To know that human behavior is not affected by the stars requires an understanding of the human mind not yet attained

jmcqk6 7y ago

It's not too difficult to test the accuracy under more rigorous conditions. Make sure you record the predictions ahead of time. Decide ahead of time what would need to happen in order to consider the predictions 'accurate.' Wait, and then record which ones turned out to meet their 'accurate' criteria. Deciding ahead of time what would be considered accurate or not is key, because otherwise practically anything can be justified with post-hoc reasoning. The other thing that happens is that the predictions are not very specific. Here is an example. Taken from a horoscope for me today: "The answer will be right there waiting for you." There is no indication what the question is. Just that there is an answer. What's the utility of this? Well there are millions of ways this "prediction" can come true. The chances of something happening any day that fits that criteria is high, and I think most days I'm dealing with an answer to something. So this prediction is meaningless. Here are some levels of specificity: You are going to have a misunderstanding with a friend today. You are going to have a misunderstanding with your closest friend today. You are going to have a misunderstanding about food with your closest friend today. You are going to have a misunderstanding about peanuts with your closest friend today. You are accidentally going to give peanuts to your closest friend today, who will have an allergic reaction. Keep an epi-pen near. I think it's pretty clear that astrology will never deliver a prediction at the level of that last statement, which also happens to be the most falsifiable and most useful. Everything about astrology is really a tool to try to shift your perspective. This can be very useful, which it why it maintains it's popularity. But it has nothing to do with actually telling the future.