Astrology, palmistry and face reading have been practiced for thousands of years, and it appears to many people that these theories are a manifestation of the human mind’s first attempts to explain events in the world by association rather than causal relationships. In other words, non-technological cultures often explain events by the action of gods or coincidental events and omens. The same myth-making part of the brain that created Greek, Norse, Hindu, Chinese, Native American, African, or any other cultures myths, seems to have conjured up the myths of these theories. The art of predicting the future has always fascinated people the world over. Ever since the remote antiquity, astrologers and fortune tellers have been enjoying a significant position in society, as most people seem to turn towards them, especially in times of adversity. But do they really make any sense?
Unfortunately there is an entire academic discipline built around the study of the history of these theories and there are no snappy answers that one can give a skeptic or anyone else for that matter. It is seriously a bit like asking a physicist to give a quick answer to the question how strong theory works .Curiosity has been a prominent feature of mankind from the first day till this date and what can a person be more curious about than knowing what’s going to happen to him the next day, the next week or the next year. When it comes to such theories, there are two species of human beings that can be found on planet Earth. One that believes in the stars, and what they foretell and the other that thinks that Astrology is the biggest hoax that was ever perpetuated on Mankind. There are a few who are indifferent, but that’s a rare species.
What is happening nowadays that there are two groups. One group belongs to astrologers who always try to support astrology due to their business considerations. These astrologers always try to fit past event very precisely within some astrological principle within a capsule of Ved, religion, astronomy, eclipse, faith etc., but they are unable to predict any future event because astrological principles lead to diverse predictions and that too diabolical opposite to each other. If  by chance a prediction in fluke may come true, then they start to harp on the same prediction and start self praising instead of applying the same so called principle on other horoscopes to see their failure. Thus astrologer can only mislead, create confusion; try to cure planets and so on. You can find that only this is going on in every forum, whereas other group try to raise some logical questions against astrology. But none of them have ever tried to investigate as to what was the level of information of sages about the Universe, who developed astrological principles in primitive age and what procedure was adopted to formulate various principles relating to Lordship, Friendship-enmity, Exalted-debilitated, etc.
There are some astrological beliefs and facts to be considered. Astrology accounts for the planets discovered and their influence on each human being. Astrologer’s claim that heavenly bodies have an influence on us. The basis for astrology is the zodiac, an arbitrary designation of star groups. An astrologer would argue that it is not arbitrary. Arbitrary is used here in the context of cultural significance. Some questions may be raised if we blindly believe these theories. Why is the distance between stars and earth not considered? Stars may appear very close in our conical view of the sky, but the distance of one of them could be magnitude different from the one appearing just on its side. Can two objects with such vast difference in distance transmit same influence on us? Why is the time of birth considered the point of deciding factor in astrological predictions? Why not the time of conception? Are foetus somehow exempt from heavenly influence. If yes, will the influence on a human, living in a room surrounded by flesh on all sides, be negated?
If you’d like solid answers, you’re out of luck. There aren’t any!
-Tanvi Shah
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