I've never believed in astrology. Its wild claims are nothing more than utter nonsense. There is no such thing as fate and no-one can predict a person's future from planetary configurations at the time of their birth.
Following his recent appearances on BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing, astrologer, Russell Grant is at pains to resurrect his dormant career. In an interview for the Radio Times, he claims that he foresaw Princess Diana's death 10 days before the accident that killed her in 1997. Indeed, he claims to have warned her of it, "Don’t go there, love. Just don’t go anywhere with him. You’ve got to knock this on the head." Leaving no cliché escape alive he goes on to say, "I basically said their relationship was so fated it was going to end in tears."
There are believers in astrology that, when under attack, wheel out the psuedo-science. A favorite explanation being their claim that the gravitational pull of the planets and stars, given their mass and particular alignment at the precise moment of our birth, will act as an influence on us. However, what they fail to understand is, gravitational pull is not merely dependent on the mass of an object but also on its proximity. Given the distances involved, the obstetrician and midwife are far more likely to have had an influence on us.
My favourite is "science doesn't know everything!"
ReplyDeleteDesperate measures, indeed...
ReplyDelete100% with you Duncan. Not that you didn't know that yet. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAll of this astrology lark is nothing more than complete B.S.
Based on vague generalisations yet personally we make it fit, and because personalities are incredibly multi-dimensional and multi-faceted, we recognise a lot of ourselves in almost any horoscope you read.
These statements are also referred to as 'Barnum statements', after P.T. Barnum. Derren Brown did a great show on this, where he asked about 100 people to hand in some personal belonging and after some time he gave them a personalised reading on paper. You guessed it, they all were handed the same 'personalised' reading and something around 96-97% said it described them perfectly.
I think we are in absolute agreement, Wim. I like the Nativity Scene in Life of Brian when the Virgin Mandy asks the Three Wise Men what star sign is Brian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wR9rIc7jQw
ReplyDeleteSays it all...
I disagree, if my destiny was left to me I'd never do anything...
ReplyDeleteHi Simon, Life is quite a lot like a monkey throwing shit at you. You can try to avoid the monkey, but they're sometimes pretty good shots. All you can honestly do is to try to deal with the shit that does hit you: that is within in your power: the rest is not.
ReplyDelete