h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I read - in a book by Bo Fowler, I think - that the midwife has more of a gravitational effect on a new born baby than all of the planets in the solar system put together.

Was it Scepticism Inc., the one narrated by the theist supermarket trolley? I don't remember that particular line but it is one of my favourite books

k

Scepticism Inc, is a great book, but the one I was thinking about was, I think it's called, The Astrological Diary of God. It not only features God living in a caravan, but it also has a photo of one of his testicles. Where is Bo Fowler today. He's one author I'd love to meet.

Just found a great quote from that book on Amazon.
"After God had spanked my monkey,people would break into applause and my body fluid would be carefully collected using a silver teaspoon and put into little glass vials. These were then labled with the word 'stars'."

What makes you think it has anything to do with gravity. If you think of the planets as hands on a clock and the Houses as the numbers on the clock and the Zodiac as another clock face which makes almost one rotation every day you will see how complex things become. Astrology is based on thousands of years of observation of the human condition. If it works, it is not due to gravity but to something more subtle like quantum wave function.

Alji

Have a look at this on-line text at
http://www.xs4all.nl/~abandon/orchor.htm
Here is a short quote from the text;
Tiny differences in space-time structure can have large effects, for they entail subtle but fundamental influences on the very rules of quantum mechanics.

Alji

Alji

Are you done with the chart now - it seems very comprehensive? I understand the English bits - well, most or them!

In which case would you like my reactions now? I've printed it off and shown it to the Admiral for her views, as she knows me best.

That chart is only a fraction of the full description, I havn't added more because I've been busy with other things.

Alji

Blimey - I thought you'd finished! Okay then, I won't say anything yet. I'll say this much though - I knew that a lot of work went into these things, but I didn't appreciate the amount of detail that was produced. It's certainly been an eye-opener from that aspect.

Nice link Alji. I skimmed most of it but I can't see any relevance to the concept of astrology - which essentially states that my personality is dictated from the moment I am born by the position of stars and planets which have no measurable effect on my body. It also suggests that my personality - regardless of how I've been brought up - will converge significantly with people born at around the same time, who may have different beliefs, ethics, parental influences, wealth etc. It's almost a rehash of the nature vs nurture debate, but the 'nature' camp at least has the merit of suggesting a person's personality and disposition is the result of their genetic makeup.
Quantum theory (as I read it) is all about energy, probablitilies and potentialities, so it's quite easy for astrologers to see some sort of link, but there can be none.
Astrology is a pseudoscience, and is always hijacking currently in vogue jargon to seem more plausable, but really it's just guesswork.

Andy (an Aquarius)

I a aries. Gulp!

Why do quantum mechanics always get the blame for these kind of things?

I do not say that it is science or a pseudoscience. What it has in common with science is a set of rules.
Astrology is all about energy, probablitilies and potentialities. Nothing is hard and fast, except how you set up the chart, though when you go on a long journey it's nice to have a map so that you can make up your own mind what route to take.
BTW Captain I've added some more to your chart.

Alji

Characteristics of the Aquarian include outgoing, friendly, detatched, humanitarian, impersonal, self-opinionated, clever and unemotional.

Alji

I suppose if you're seeking to justify astrology, which is difficult to understand and meets with scepticism, it pays to associate it with something like quantum physics that's even more difficult to understand but which carries scientific authority.

You then make the link that the person you're talking to doesn't understand either, so they have no reason for thinking one is more valid than the other.

Do I detect a smidgeon of self-parody here, Aljiis?

outgoing (not usually), friendly (mostly), detatched (occasionally), humanitarian (yes), impersonal (sometimes), self-opinionated (definately), clever (occasionally) and unemotional (not in a million years).

I expect you'd get a similar hit rate for my wife (Aries) or my Saggitarian mother.

I was encouraged to believe in astrology as a child, and know the basics. I have never been particularly convinced in the idea that the planets govern my life, but I can't deny that I'm mercurial. At my most sceptical, I would say that a set of astrological predictions has a scattergun effect, with people ignoring the chaff and taking the wheat to their hearts. Once you've heard some things that are true for yourself, you're personally involved and are more likely to take the rest in as well.

But even if it is just a superstition, it's part of what being human is all about. Whether it 'works' or not, it is mostly concerned with giving people good general advice. And what's wrong with that? It's always up to the individual whether they take the advice in or not. Heads of state have a lot of decisions to make, some of them arbitrary. Why not use some method that helps reduce the randomness, and can also shoulder some of the blame if things go wrong?

It would be easier for me to dismiss astrology if it wasn't for the insufferable arrogance present in modern science. Astrology and any other 'Fortean' phenomena are not scientifically verifiable (or unverifiable) because the scientific approach is inherently reductive. This is the paradox at the heart of the scientific method and the reason I suggest why there will never be a unified proven Grand Theory Of Everything. It's like stretching a blanket over too large a bed - and believing in such a theory would take as great a leap of faith as belief in astrology.

As one gemini to another, do you find it difficult to finnish things that have gone on for too long (and you have become bored).
I try to find quick ways for doing things or leave them for a while and then go back to them.

Alji

All completely true for me too, Alji. Not that it undermines my argument - I'm still resolutely undecided, probably.