Astrology Is Pseudoscience

3 Big Reasons Astrology is Pseudoscience 

Astrology: An ancient pseudoscience practiced by modern people. 

Astrology has been around for as long as humans noted the stars had patterns (as early as 25,000 years ago) and roughly 2,000 years astrology was in the same scientific category as astronomy. It was a respected science during the same era that people believed in leprechauns, spitting on a wound to disinfect it and psychological disorders were caused by demonic spirits. However, unlike astronomy, astrology hasn't changed much since that era of crack-pot science. While astronomy has accepted scientific discoveries about the universe, such as a round Earth. astrology still clings to the idea that a person's day, week and lifetime can be predicted based upon the position of the stars, moons and planets. For anybody who hasn't heard of astrology it is just as crazy as it sounds, but for those that have been indoctrinated with horoscopes astrology is a legitimate field of study and many people will pay extraordinary amounts of money to have their future read by an "official" astrologist. Because the burden of evidence is on astrologists to prove their extraordinary claim we're going to be looking at the claims made by astrology and then discussing why those claims are hogwash. 

Claim #1: The Planets Orbital Speed Can Give Perspective on Personal Life

Astrologists claim that the speed of the inner most planets, being quickest, affect your daily life. And the slow speed of the outer planets will affect larger portions of your life. Evidence for the personality trait each planet affects mainly relies on the Gods the planets were named after such as Aries the God of war who rules Mars or the cheerful Sagittarius of Jupiter. 

Why it's Bullshit -

Astrologist's claim here first relies on the idea that planets maintain a predictable and constant speed. However, according to actual scientists the speed of planets continuously slows down and in certain cases can speed up again. The fact that astrology is based on a 2,000 year old model means that the planets have long since changed their orbit and speed. Even if modern astrologists claim to adjust for this the speed of our planets is still shifting and changing meaning only an astrologist with a degree in physics and astronomy could accurately predict how fast the planets are currently orbiting the sun. More importantly astrologers use the speed of planets orbiting the sun as evidence because... they don't have an explanation other than the speed somehow affects Earth. Even many astrology websites will say "We don't know how it works, it just works." Furthermore, for some reason, astrologists like to include Earth's moon, but ignore all the other moons in the solar system. They don't give a reason other than the proximity of the moon to Earth. Lastly, poor Pluto, they include Pluto but fail to realize one of the main reasons astronomers no longer consider Pluto a planet: there's at least 100 other "planets" that were discovered orbiting the outer rim of our Solar System. Some of these planets are bigger and also contradict astrologists claim because they orbit the sun faster than inner planets. Another problem for astrologists is how new of a discovery Pluto is. The ex-planet wasn't discovered until February 18, 1930. 

How can a 2,000 year old model be based on a planet that is less than 100 years old? Sure modern astrologists could try to include the 100+ planets, but that would be too much work for make-believe scientists and they would constantly have to adjust their model as more and more non-planets are discovered. Now that you know about the extra planets you're probably wondering "What about all the other shit orbiting the sun? Don't astrologists include that?" the answer is: no my fellow angry blogger, they don't include all the asteroids, comets and astronaut poop orbiting the sun and our planet. Excluding so many factors in their model demonstrates a massive amount of ignorance about astronomy on their part. 

Claim #2: The Exact Time You Were Born Determines Your Zodiac Sign

One site claims that every 4 minutes a new degree of a particular zodiac appears on the eastern horizon. This site also says that the time can be attributed mainly to the Earth's rotation on its axis. Another astrology site claims that the time of birth is relevant to where the planet's were when you were born. This site further claims there is a freeze frame of the sky and the precise birth moment and location. A third website states that the position of Earth's moon and what was in the sky at the moment you were born are also important factors in determining your life, personality and "natal chart". 

Why it's Bullshit - 

Common knowledge dictates that multiple babies are born in the same hospital at the same time. If astrologers were correct in their claim about birth time and location than every baby born in that hospital at the same time would all have the same personality, life and "natal chart". Yet, obviously these people all have different lives and many will never come into contact with each other again. 

Astrologers also fail to address why identical twins have different lives. 2 people with identical DNA and identical birth times should have the same lives right? However, we have numerous twins that were separated at birth and have completely different personalities. Lastly, if astrology was an actual science than they should reproduce the same results with the same birth times. Yet when you enter identical birth times into astrology sites you typically come up with different results. 

When I entered my birth time into 2 different sites I got one site claiming that I'm an intellectual and a good student. While the other site said that I don't think too much. Further, both sites claimed that I like to be in groups, which couldn't be farther from the truth: I hate crowds and hate to be surrounded by people. Further one site implied I keep a tidy home and like to wear the finest clothes. My home is a mess and many of my shirts have holes in them because I just don't care.

An actual personality scientist, a psychologist, can reproduce the same results every time. If a person has depression they will be diagnosed with depression by multiple psychologists because they follow the scientific process of observation and more importantly correcting past inaccuracies in their field. Astrologists continue to practice the exact same methods that have been used for "thousands of years". People believed schizophrenia was caused by demons and depression was the result of "bad blood" thousands of years ago. Why should we trust a science that hasn't updated itself since that period of scientific darkness? Part of being a scientist is admitting when you're wrong and made a mistake. Actual scientists are constantly changing their theories and updated their methods as new discoveries are made. Astrologers can't call themselves scientists when they don't follow the scientific method of admitting they were wrong.

Claim #3: An Astrologer Can Make Accurate Predictions Without Meeting You

Many astrologers buy into their own claims and believe they can make accurate predictions by simply knowing the exact date, time and place you were born, without knowing you or meeting you. They claim to be able to forecast what your profession should be, where you should live, what will happen to your children and where you will find love. The reason they claim this is possible is because astrologers can forecast "energy trends". 

Why it's Bullshit - 

Claiming to predict the future has always been a farce, especially in the modern world with accurate scientific predictions. Astrologers put themselves in the same realm as psychics, fortune tellers, prophets, Voodoo Priests and every other supernatural group claiming that the future can be predicted without actual science. It's pretty easy to dispute a group that claims to predict the future because we never hear of the fortune teller who won the lottery or the astrologer who predicted the outcome of every Superbowl 5 years in a row. 

However, that doesn't stop astrologers and other pseudo-scientists from claiming they have actually predicted the future. To understand why these predictions are not actually supernatural or scientific we have to understand what qualifies as a prediction; accurate, specific and with a time frame. The most important of those is the time frame because of the physical laws of probability if something is given an infinite amount of time to be accomplished eventually it will come true. 

The best analogy of this is the infinite monkey theorem which states that given an infinite amount of time a thousand monkeys with typewriters would eventually write all of Shakespeare's plays in chronological order.  This has nothing to do with supernatural predictions, clairvoyance or the ability to see the future; it is just basic science. 

Further, if astrologers want to call themselves scientists they have to follow the same scrutiny that other scientists do when making predictions. Their predictions have to be peer-reviewed, open to criticism, open to being wrong and explained how they came to that conclusion. That sentence was probably redundant, but the point is that astrologers have to allow their predictions to be analyzed and even mocked. Actual scientists don't mind being made fun of and they are happy when proven wrong because the truth is more important than being right.