Calling Astrology A Psuedo-Science
August 30, 2008
We hear astrology called a “psuedo-science”, a “fake” science, but even for skeptics is this a valid term? “Debunkers” would like us to believe that astrology is disproved by science, but the fact is the science they are using to debunk astrology is not even well defined.
Skeptics present the argument that gravitational forces from far away bodies can’t possibly exert significant influence on other bodies. Magnetism and gravity are recognized as these “forces”, but did you know that at the current time not even scientists know how they work?
From the article on this page:
“The question of why atoms attract one another is still not understood . . ”
It follows then, you do not know how these forces work, you can not use them to to support your arguments.
Furthermore:
For a scientists to claim that a topic is no more than “unscientific nonsense,” or “psuedo-science,” writing off an entire area of interest, when neither they nor any other scientist has ever actually studied it scientifically, is an expression of arrogance.
From Wikipedia:
“As it is taught in certain introductory science classes, pseudoscience is any subject that appears superficially to be scientific or whose proponents state is scientific but nevertheless contravenes the testability requirement, or substantially deviates from other fundamental aspects of the scientific method.”
But has astrology been sufficiently studied to be said that it “contravene the testability requirement”? Michel Gaugelin and his wife Francois, studied thousands of charts and found the “Mars Effect”, which was independently evaluated by Professor Ertel and Kenneth Irving They found no error in the way the Gaugelins conducted their study. Other studies focus on limited aspects of astrology, such as sun signs and moon phases and do not encompass astrological theory as a whole. Maybe it can’t. But is seems that we certainly have not done enough studies to make any declarations at all that affirms or denies the scientific nature of astrology.
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September 17th, 2008 at 10:03 am
[...] Calling Astrology a Pseudo Science [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 4:08 am
1. You’re confusing how and why.
2. Even IF (a very big if) we accept your premise that it is not understood how gravity or magnetism works how then can you claim to know that it works for astrology?
But you’re of course free to “affirm the scientific nature of astrology” until then I’ll call it woo woo.