Basic Introduction to Astrology
Astrology is a belief system made into an elaborate pseudoscience, that basically concentrates the humans as the focal point of the universe. It considers the movement of planets or any astronomical event and relates it to the events in the human world. Astrology consists of horoscopes (An astrological chart that contains the information about the positions of the planets and other astronomical events) that claim to predict a person's personality or their future events.
The need for Astrology
The foundations of Astrology were all debunked more than three hundred year ago, yet it is still taken seriously by a large number of people. The main reason as to why everyone feels the need to check their horoscopes everyday is because of their curiousness to know about their future. Humans always feel the need to be the focal point, they want to feel special and connected. But Science has thought us so much, including the fact that the universe really doesn't care about what humans think. Nature behaves the way she is, it doesn't care whether you like it or not.
People learnt that the earth must be special from religious teachings so they developed models that advocated it. One of these models were Geocentricism, an astronomical model in which Earth is the centre and all other planets including the sun revolved around it. We now know that the Sun is the centre of our solar system and all other planets revolve around it.
Predicting the future is impossible
No one can possibly predict the future. The barrier here is not incapability but a universal limitation that nature sets. The Uncertainty Principle clearly depicts that it is impossible to accurately predict the velocity of a particle if we know its position with high accuracy. It is easy to handle with Classical physics i.e the dynamics of the larger objects. By way of an example, when person throws a ball at you from a far distance, you can accurately predict the movement and catch the ball. It is as though you computed a set of complex differential equations of a system that governed the movement of the ball within few seconds. This seems easy because we were evolved with Classical physics. But Quantum physics (i.e the physics of tiny objects) is entirely different it seems intuitive and bizarre but it has been experimentally tested numerous times. If suppose we could break the Uncertainty Principle barrier and calculate both the velocity and the position of each and every electron of a person. Then it is possible to predict that person's future with high accuracy. But unfortunately, the barrier set by nature cannot be broken.
Why do we consider Astrology as a Pseudoscience?
There has been no evidence that proves the predictions of Astrology. People tend to think that astrology is true because they might have had few experiences in which the predictions were absolutely true. But do they really think they can start believing in something which seems to work only few times? The search for the truth is entirely based on skepticism and continuous experiments. Nature does not change physical constants. If continuous experiments yield to the same answer again and again, we deduce its dynamics, i.e the working behind it and conclude that it must be true.
The Uncertainty Principle is a fundamental limitation that cannot be broken and this is why the scientific community has always considered astrology as a pseudoscience.
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence" -Christopher Hitchens.
Astrology is a belief system made into an elaborate pseudoscience, that basically concentrates the humans as the focal point of the universe. It considers the movement of planets or any astronomical event and relates it to the events in the human world. Astrology consists of horoscopes (An astrological chart that contains the information about the positions of the planets and other astronomical events) that claim to predict a person's personality or their future events.
The need for Astrology
The foundations of Astrology were all debunked more than three hundred year ago, yet it is still taken seriously by a large number of people. The main reason as to why everyone feels the need to check their horoscopes everyday is because of their curiousness to know about their future. Humans always feel the need to be the focal point, they want to feel special and connected. But Science has thought us so much, including the fact that the universe really doesn't care about what humans think. Nature behaves the way she is, it doesn't care whether you like it or not.
People learnt that the earth must be special from religious teachings so they developed models that advocated it. One of these models were Geocentricism, an astronomical model in which Earth is the centre and all other planets including the sun revolved around it. We now know that the Sun is the centre of our solar system and all other planets revolve around it.
Predicting the future is impossible
No one can possibly predict the future. The barrier here is not incapability but a universal limitation that nature sets. The Uncertainty Principle clearly depicts that it is impossible to accurately predict the velocity of a particle if we know its position with high accuracy. It is easy to handle with Classical physics i.e the dynamics of the larger objects. By way of an example, when person throws a ball at you from a far distance, you can accurately predict the movement and catch the ball. It is as though you computed a set of complex differential equations of a system that governed the movement of the ball within few seconds. This seems easy because we were evolved with Classical physics. But Quantum physics (i.e the physics of tiny objects) is entirely different it seems intuitive and bizarre but it has been experimentally tested numerous times. If suppose we could break the Uncertainty Principle barrier and calculate both the velocity and the position of each and every electron of a person. Then it is possible to predict that person's future with high accuracy. But unfortunately, the barrier set by nature cannot be broken.
Why do we consider Astrology as a Pseudoscience?
There has been no evidence that proves the predictions of Astrology. People tend to think that astrology is true because they might have had few experiences in which the predictions were absolutely true. But do they really think they can start believing in something which seems to work only few times? The search for the truth is entirely based on skepticism and continuous experiments. Nature does not change physical constants. If continuous experiments yield to the same answer again and again, we deduce its dynamics, i.e the working behind it and conclude that it must be true.
The Uncertainty Principle is a fundamental limitation that cannot be broken and this is why the scientific community has always considered astrology as a pseudoscience.
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence" -Christopher Hitchens.
A really well written article! But there might be other means of predicting the future so dont rule that out just yet. be a little doubtful.
ReplyDeleteThanks. And Yes you're right. Information is the foundation of Quantum mechanics. Every matter and energy exists as Information and these informations are traceable only to the sub-atomic levels. And the only thing that prevents us from predicting the future is the Uncertainty Principle. Information can be expressed as 0's and 1's. The spin of an electron has a relation with this. Yea you're probably right. There might be a paradigm shift but until then this is the answer.
DeleteCould you please explain to me why the Uncertainty Principle is valid here, where we are talking about human actions and celestial bodies?
ReplyDelete