Astrology, do you believe, or think it’s more lies?

Years ago I had an argument, this argument was with a girl who I saw reading her star sign in a magazine. “That’s just a load of rubbish” I told her after a “discussion” which should more accurately be referred to as a massive argument I set her a challenge. I told her that for a month I would read my star sign and if anything in it came true I would admit that there really was something to this.

Now to be clear I am a Aries I was using the same source for my star sign and not once in the month did any of it come true so she lost the argument and admitted star signs were a load of rubbish. However I have continued to read my star sign, I read it every day usually i read about 2 or 3 different versions of what the stars have in store for me every day. I don’t believe they can provide an accurate account of what my future might hold by for a good 3 years I have read my star sign’s out of habit.

Only once has it came close once saying that something big was going to happen on a Thursday, which happened to be the day of a important exam. That however has not convinced me it was only one day out of the hundreds of days i have read my star signs, mystic meg just got lucky that day. If the success rate was s ay 30 to 50% then yeah, i would be a believer but with 0.09% sucsess rate i really can’t believe any of it.

I really don’t understand how anyone can believe they are accurate or “real”. Let’s face it usually we are looking at a small paragraph that is supposed to provide some sort of hint of what life is going to through today. How can that one paragraph really be expected to predict the days outcomes for millions of people just because they were born in the same month, doesn’t add up to me.

Also because i tend to read multiple versions of my star sign i have also noticed they are incredibly inconstant form account to account. So for example one might say “today you will find love” whist another one will say “you will lose someone close to you today”, yet i remain single for the whole day, week, month and so on. Two contradictorily statements both using my star sign, I would have expected them both the reach a similar conclusion not one that is so paradoxical.

My question then to you all on ATS is this, if you believe that the zodiac and you star signs are accurately and consistently providing you with a accurate prediction or guide then why is it not working for me and why do you believe in any of it. I am personally still take the view that astrology is just verbal diarrhea that some con artist vomits on to the page of a magazine of a newspaper to appease the ignorant, stupid and desperate because the posses no other worthwhile skills.



[edit on 2-9-2010 by kevinunknown]

A quick, corrective point - you mean Astrology, not Astronomy.

reply to post by kevinunknown


Hey Kevin,

Of course I "believe" in ASTRONOMY!!! It is a science after all. lol
I think you might mean Astrology...
My Wife believes in that crap, too...DON'T Argue with her. Just let it go.

Take care and 73's,
Tom

Astronomy? Yes, I believe.

Astrology? No, not one bit.

Most astrology predictions are so vague and subjective that they can mean almost anything. Try reading your "daily astrology" prediction for another sign and see if it doesn't still "fit".

reply to post by Silver Star


Thanks I made the change.

When I taught a mathematical logic class in college I had an astrological true believer as a student. (I never understood why she was taking my course.) I set up an experiment where I randomized the twelve zodiac readings every day for a month, and gave one to her to see if it came true. Of course almost everyone of them did, even though I later showed her that only three of the readings came from her sign, Aquarius.

It's important to recognize two meanings for Astrology.
1) The hokey horoscopes, like in the tabloids
2) A full chart reading based on an individual's birth time/date/location



Horoscopes are intentionally vague because someone is attempting to make todays planet positions match roughly 1/12th of the world's population. They're pretty much worthless but can sometimes have a few meaningful remarks.

Real Astrology, dating back several thousand years encompasses A LOT of very specific aspects of a person's personality, current possible events, behaviors, and much, much more.

a few examples coming in a minute

reply to post by kevinunknown


While uncertain whether the planets and stars can affects the waters etc within us, I tend to think that most astrologers are hoaxers.

In fact, it wouldn't be that far fetched that energies in universe could affect us in some way - what way? I do not know.

-v

[edit on 2-9-2010 by v01i0]

reply to post by kevinunknown


Well with all respect I feel that your experiment was fatally flawerd. I believe a bit more research would hav epointed out a few important "facts".

Firstly from what I can gather the sun sign prediction you get in the Papers is deduced using a single year of relevance. If for want of argument the signifying year is 35 years ago then if you were born say 40 years ago then the figure interpretatgion is wrong.
Secondly what is your ascendant? The ascendant is the the constellation that is supposed to be just rising over the horizon when you were born. As you can see the ascendant is longitude-dependent as well as time dependent. People born on the same longitude but 12 hrs apart will have diametrically opposite signs. The ascendant is further modified by the position of the planets especially those with orbits as far out as saturn.

This is really a simple explanation. I suggest that you get a professional astrologer to draw up your horoscope and get some predictions and test them. you can also look at certain key dates in your life and see whether a chart of that would indicate it.

Yes it costs money but so does all research.

Personally. I could never get why I seem to be so at odds with my own birth sign of Leo. Well my ascendant is Capricorn and I am more like a capricorn than a leo.

I'm not gonna spend a lot of time trying to prove Astrology is a true science but I will share a little story about it.

For the first half of my life I didn't believe in Astrology at all - thought it was a joke. I'm very analytical and science oriented, although I believe a lot in psychic ability and various other paranormal things because I experience them personally.

I walked into a bookstore and a woman offered to "read my chart" - I had no idea what she meant. I asked her how much and she offered to do it for free as she found me interesting...
She printed up my birth chart, similiar to the one posted in my previous post, and proceded to blow me away with an extremely accurate reading of many, many aspects of my personality. She talked for an hour and was exactly right on on 90+% of what she said!

I went on to study it out of curiosity and am a true believer! I've read charts for 200+ people and nearly every one of them has been surprised at the accuracy and detail of Astrology. (charts, not horoscopes, mind you)

**

One aspect of Astrology that some people can actually experience is something called "Mercury retrograde". This event causes all sorts of crazy breakdowns, miscommunications, accidentally or unexplained deletions of files/emails etc, driving and trasportation problems. Mercury retrograde will last several months usually but the first few days are crazy! So, if you are having a few days of crazy miscommunications, canceled reservations etc check out somehow if mercury is retrograde - it very well might be!

Here's a great website for seeing your chart, along with interactive charts to click on aspects of your chart and their associated meanings.
www.astro.com...

People often confuse horoscopes with astrology. They are not the same thing. Horoscopes are a modern day invention which is loosely based on astrology, but they are not infact the same. Astrology is something that is very interesting for the simple fact that the zodiac goes back through time, and it was in every single civilization to have ever lived on this earth. So obviously it has some meaning, but that meaning has been lost in time, or perhaps, kept a secret.

Originally posted by Tiger5
Personally. I could never get why I seem to be so at odds with my own birth sign of Leo. Well my ascendant is Capricorn and I am more like a capricorn than a leo.

I'm glad you took the time to research it! I'm a Scorpio but I have Capricorn ascendant and Cancer Moon, so I vary quite a bit from the Scorpio horoscope readings and book descriptions.

In general a lot of people discount Astrology overall because all they know about is the cheesy, vague horoscopes.

There is actually a little bit of true Astrology behind the horoscopes. They can predict that ALL scorpios, for example, will have a few certain aspects going on that particular day, so they attempt to craft the horoscope to match. Still vague for the most part. Source - I used to know a guy who wrote horoscopes for a living; he took it VERY seriously.

[edit on 2-9-2010 by Thermo Klein]

Originally posted by Toromos
When I taught a mathematical logic class in college I had an astrological true believer as a student. (I never understood why she was taking my course.) I set up an experiment where I randomized the twelve zodiac readings every day for a month, and gave one to her to see if it came true. Of course almost everyone of them did, even though I later showed her that only three of the readings came from her sign, Aquarius.

Not sure if this is your personal experience or relating a story; I've heard this exact example several times (or maybe I know you in person!? )

Although I think this is a fair enough experiment, it is NOT an experiment about Astrology - it is an experiment about horoscopes and a person's perceptions. Horoscopes are very vague and this could probably be repeated numerous times coming to the same result: horoscopes are vague.

By the way, I'm a very experienced Astrologer and I never read horoscopes - they're a waste of time in my opinion.

[edit on 2-9-2010 by Thermo Klein]

reply to post by Thermo Klein

Originally posted by Thermo Klein

By the way, I'm a very experienced Astrologer and I never read horoscopes - they're a waste of time in my opinion.

[edit on 2-9-2010 by Thermo Klein]

i haven't had chance to meet real astrologer and your post got me interested. could you give a short interpretation if i'll post my exact birthdate and location (or whatever you need) as u2u?

reply to post by kevinunknown


I feel the much the same way... how anyone can believe in astrology is beyond me. I mean for one the stars are in a complete different position today than they were when astrology was first invented. And the predictions are so vague as to be able to fit a great deal of people in a very general sense in much the same way the majority of prophecy and psychic trickery works.

Here's a great video featuring some great minds tackling astrology:

FIRST: Use Sidereal astrology

SECOND: Read only MONTHLY horoscopes and see what you get, try the website Astrology Zone or Realastrologers

THIRD: Your sun sign may be actually Pisces and your rising sign is extremely important.
Actually all the planets in your chart are extremely important.

FOURTH: Check when planets are retrograde. They never get wrong.

FIFTH: Read your chart

Yes, astrology is completely true.

Thanks, ThermoKlein. I've always had an interest in astrology and I would like to learn how to read people's charts. I'll start with that web site. Do you do this professionally or as a hobby?

reply to post by LifeInDeath


Call me when you will have studied every angle of astrology ( the sidereal one ) for 5 years.
You can't debunk a topic when you never opened a single book about that topic.

Originally posted by Zagari
reply to post by LifeInDeath

 

Call me when you will have studied every angle of astrology ( the sidereal one ) for 5 years.
You can't debunk a topic when you never opened a single book about that topic.

There is no such thing as "can't". This is the sum total of the sceptic movement. I have a parrot that can say "that is not true".

Why these people never put in the work is beyond me.