Astronomy & Astrology

StuckInTheSixties
StuckInTheSixties:

Astronomy = cool science with telescopes and stuff

Astrology = nonsense devised for separating suckers from their money

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Karma
Karma: You are such an Aries!
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brassinpockets
brassinpockets: well. before we had the empirical method, the world was run using astrology., and it worked pretty well.... there has to be a validity to it
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LiptonCambell
LiptonCambell: And before medical science, people spat on wounds to heal them....it worked pretty well, so that means spitting on wounds heals them, right?

And before weather forecasting, people killed goats or even people to appease the Gods- and sure enough, they got the right kind of weather- surely that means there's some validity to it...


Lemme ask you brass- why are there different kind of astrologies? Like, why is there Babylonian astrology, Hellenistic astrology, Chinese astrology , Hindu astrology, and Western astrology? Why are they are all different, if they are predicting the same things? How, if they are all different, can there really be any accuracy?

Why is the astrology in the local paper for Aries different than the astrology for the national paper? If they're right, shouldn't they all be the same?

Do you honestly think that the position of stars on the date of your birth has ANYTHING to do with your personality or fate? Wouldn't more local things have to do with it? I mean, if I died at 33 by a car accident, I don't think it's because Venus eclipsed Mars on the date of my birth- I'd think it's cause the jackass down the road didn't have enough sense to not drink and drive...
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Hyenablood
Hyenablood: calm down lipton, no one is forcing astrology down your throat, sheesh, today it's just taken as mild amusment by the normal everyday people who really give it no thought. In nearly every case the person writing the astrology for the local or nation news is just some idiot with a bit of creative writing that was hired by the paper. No need to start a riot over it.
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StuckInTheSixties
StuckInTheSixties:

???

Calm down? What "riot" is Lipton causing?

While his skeptical questions were direct, they weren't asked with any apparent rancor. No insults were issued. There was no cursing. No one's personal character was called into question. And those were all reasonable questions that, if astrology has any validity, should have answers.

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Karma
Karma: Any fool knows that one can only truly rely upon Fortune Cookies.
They combine two of my favorite things: Dessert and Precognition.
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StuckInTheSixties
StuckInTheSixties:

And there's something very pleasing about reading that fortune, pausing for a couple of beats, and then adding ...

"... in bed."

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Karma
Karma: My most recent Fortune ...
You deserve respect and will eventually get it.
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Karma
Karma: ... in bed.
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CoIin
CoIin: @ Brassinpockets - "well. before we had the empirical method, the world was run using astrology., and it worked pretty well.... there has to be a validity to it"

This doesn't follow. For example, many successful scientific theories from the past are now known to be false.
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StuckInTheSixties
StuckInTheSixties:

My most recent fortune was:

You will soon fail to maintain an adequate erection resulting in hysterical sobbing and near suicidal humiliation ... in bed.

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CoIin
CoIin: Speaking of which.... I have often heard a similar argument (argumentum ad populum) used in defence of particular religions. Eg.

"Just look at the sheer number of Christians - there must be something to it"

If we accept this (fallacious) line of argument, then the Christian would also have to concede the truths of Islam, Hinduism, etc etc
(Edited by CoIin)
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Geoff
Geoff: Look at how many people get suckered into thinking they've won the Nigerian state lottery.

Ergo: there must actually be a Nigerian State Lottery and some people (who have never heard of it, let alone entered it) must have won it.
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LiptonCambell
LiptonCambell: >>>today it's just taken as mild amusment by the normal everyday people who really give it no thought.

I got no problem with that. Should people treat it the same way most people treat those Cosmo quiz's, I don't think there's any harm in it.

But if someone claimed Cosmo quiz's have a mystical power to read a persons soul? I would say that person is taking it too far.

Read again the post I was responding to. Clearly, this is the kind of person believes Astrology has the power to read your soul. That kind of literalism is a problem- certainly that we can agree on? That believing balls of burning gas Billions and Trillions of miles away, and their positions in the sky at the time of your birth, somehow has a predictive power- that's just nonsense...
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brassinpockets
brassinpockets: actually, yeah spiting on a wound is better that letting dired be imbedded. this has to do with degrees od filth. did you know that you can wash a wound with urine? Urine is clean. but you digressed. the subject is if Astrolgy has validity. yep , it does, how ever you need to think outside of the box here. The tools for measuring empirically derived data will not work.... This is a right brain thing, not a left brain thang
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StuckInTheSixties
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Geoff
Geoff: So my hypothesis about ghosts and aliens can be extended to include astrology...
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StuckInTheSixties
StuckInTheSixties:

And phrenology. And Tarot cards. Palmistry. All that stuff.

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Karma
Karma: I'm a girl. We are fascinated by mythical creatures like ghosts, unicorns, vampires and good listeners.
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Geoff
Geoff: Wait, sorry - what were you saying?
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StuckInTheSixties
StuckInTheSixties:

I gotta ask brassinpockets my standard astrology question:

If astrology has merit, two babies born at the same place at the same time should have the same life. This happens quite often. It happens all the time in hospitals in large cities all over the world. This has happened countless times.

Yet those babies go on to lead completely different lives as if they were born in different places at different times.

How can this be?

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Karma
Karma: It's Obama's fault of course.
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Geoff
Geoff: Wait, sorry - I still wasn't listening. What were you saying?
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LiptonCambell
LiptonCambell: >>>The tools for measuring empirically derived data will not work..

Why not?
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Lanra
Lanra:
+Foil
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