What’s your sign?

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In a fairly long life, I have encountered many strange and irrational beliefs.
Scientology, organised religion, God, earthquake weather, ghosts, the inherent superiority, beauty and intelligence of our offspring (which could actually be a racial survival trait, as it prevents us strangling the little sods when they insist on a cuddle in the martial bed just as things are getting interesting.

But none seem as weird to me as Astrology. (Mind you Scientology must be a very close second. Invisible aliens existing in our brains? Who do they think we are? Ronald Reagan?)

However, back to Astrology. If at this point you do not know the difference between Astrology (predictions on your personality traits and the future) and Astronomy (The scientific study of the celestial universe. Moons, planets, stars, galaxies etc.) then I would predict that you know your “star sign” and avidly read the astrological predictions published in most newspapers and (for some strange reason) every women’s magazine ever published.

Actually as a slight digression, I believe that the religious right-wing loonies of Westbro are forbidden to read such predictions as it contravenes some sort of rule in their belief structure. A perfect example of “Doing the right thing for the wrong reason” Well done Fred Phelps.

Back to Astrology.
Like many of the pseudo-scientific beliefs, it is/was based on the current scientific discoveries of the founding era. The signs of the Zodiac was a mnemonic device used by ancient (and sometimes present day) navigators to organise the observed night sky into recognisable patterns.
And then the “mystics” and the Spiritually Enhanced got their greedy and avaricious talons into the idea.
The prime premise for this belief seems to be based on the following:
The positions of the stars and planets in our universe have an effect on your personality, character and future actions and events. Many of the stars included in your “Star sign” are thousands of light years away. They are so unimaginably far away, that we don’t even know if they even exist anymore, because what we observe is historical light, light which left the surface of the source star thousands of years ago, and which has spent all that time, whizzing towards us at 299,792,458 ms-1.
The idea is so completely insane that if the idea was developed in the present day, the developer would probably be locked up for his/her own safety. Unless it was developed in California.

So far away they haven't even heard of Elvis

How any rational person could have believed any of this cr*p beats me, especially as just recently it was announced that they’ve been getting it wrong, and that the original zodiacal signs need to be supplemented by a new sign (Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17 ) because the “sky has changed”.

Quite often the contributors and readers of MMA have a go at organised religion, especially of the more cultish representatives of the type, but I think we should also be having a go at some of the other irrational belief structures that we all know exist in our world.

Homeopathy would be a good place to start.

Water has a memory?

Maybe I should put some in my computer, everyone always says you can’t have too much memory in a computer.

About Post Author

Robert Douglas

Teacher, married with two grown up children. Our son lives in NZ, our married daughter is in Scotland. We live in a lovely house in a small town about 30 km from the capital. We keep a small dog (Bichon Frise) and spend our spare time reading, gardening and going for walks.
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Michael John Scott
13 years ago

I’m a Virgo. I have no idea what that means.

13 years ago

As a Taurus, I only believe the good things about us Spring babies, but if had been born in Australia I’d have been an Autumn baby?

13 years ago

My sign is a stop sign. 😉 I am skeptical about everything, so Astrology is up there too for me.

Jess
13 years ago

I can honestly say I pay as much attention to my horoscope as I do fortune cookies. That is none, it would be seconds of my life I would never get back ever.

13 years ago

Oh I LOVE to take shots at not just organized (and disorganized) religion, but at all superstitious and/ or “magical” thinking. Yes that includes most new age (which I pronounce to rhyme with sewage- because it is)tripe like ear candles, homeopathy, and astrology. The list is formidable.

I promise Robert that if you don’t do a post debunking homeopathy in the next month, I will.

Michael John Scott
13 years ago

I am amazed at the number of world leaders who believed in astrology and wouldn’t make a decision if the “signs” were wrong. Ronald Reagan was one of them as was Adolf Hitler, although talk about the latter’s belief was more anecdotal than evidential.

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