ASTROLOGY IS NONSENSE
Aditya Sinha
Ten days ago India witnessed a rare natural occurrence, a total solar eclipse that lasted around six minutes. In Chennai the eclipse was partial, yet the Tamil Nadu Science Foundation found that their 50,000 filter spectacles sold out in no time at all (five of them to my family). That sounds good until you mull it over: hmmm, they made only 50,000. Chennai’s total population is estimated at around 80 lakh. This statistic came to life during an immediate post-eclipse walk to Elliot’s beach. Most mornings the beach is abuzz with the elderly on their constitutional, huddled lovers, a team sport in progress, coconut hawkers, vegetable vendors, a couple of beggars, and several inquisitive dogs. This morning only the dogs were present. Nothing else moved (other than the higher-than-usual tides lashing the beach). Everyone was hiding from the Moon-hidden Sun.
People hid because thanks to those shameless confidence tricksters known as astrologers, they thought the eclipse would bring untold catastrophe. Of course there was a joint statement with Pakistan that few Indians seemed to like; there was a G8 resolution against nuclear trade with nations like India that hadn’t signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty; there was a visit from Hillary Clinton which left many with the same queasy feeling you get in a dentist’s waiting room; and there was a nuclear end users agreement that for many conjured visions of Americans marching into our secret nuclear labs and plants for unannounced inspection tours. But none of this heralded any global or even local catastrophe. Our prime minister forcefully told the country to stop fretting and leave business to him. The solar eclipse thus was astrologically an anti-climax. Otherwise, it was an awesome event: other than my surly sleepy-headed son, my family enjoyed watching it. You could say it was auspicious, even.
It may sound hypocritical for this columnist to lambast astrology since we carry a horoscope every day (and a full page on Sundays), but let me assure you that if it weren’t for the geniuses in the sales department who insist that the paper sells only because of the horoscope, we would drop it immediately. I rant against astrology not because I am an ultra-rationalist in the mould of Mr Kalaignar; indeed it can be argued that astrology has nothing to do with faith, even if its proponents would have you think that if you don’t believe in astrology then you are an ISI agent. Religion is about ethics, metaphysics and faith, but does not pretend to be predictive, the way astrology does.
Strangely, even as US President Barack Obama cites India when urging his nation’s children to study more science and technology, a large number of our own are still slave to this pseudo-science. It is a credit to our scientists that more and more people come out to view eclipses, but it is true that many scientists still depend on horoscopes when arranging marriages. Astrology is not our tradition or culture, and if it has been part of our social life for millennia, then it needs to be immediately discarded along with sati, child marriage, dowry and caste prejudice.
Biman Basu’s Astrology: Sense or Nonsense (NBT, 81 pages, Rs 50) demonstrates how astrology exploits ignorance and anxiety. The former editor of Science Reporter points out that though astrology preceded astronomy, it is the only “science” not modified in its practice since its formalisation. Astrology arose out of the study of the movement of heavenly bodies by the ancients with the naked eye. Since then technology has made our observations and measurements more precise — most dramatically with the invention of the telescope.
One of the inventors was Galileo Galilei, who proved Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory that the Earth was not at the centre of our solar system, and that it revolved around the Sun (and not vice-versa). This was so heretical that Copernicus did not publish his findings till he was on his deathbed; as for Galileo, the Church persecuted him. Still, it had a profound effect on Western thought: it modernised science and philosophy. Empiricism came to the forefront of knowledge; and man was no longer the central idea of the Universe. Strangely, astrology did not change a bit. Perhaps this rigidity contributed to the West marching ahead while India wallowed in backwardness and foreign subjugation.
Astrology is conveniently immune to testability or falsification, which the 20th century philosopher of science Karl Popper said were the hallmarks needed to distinguish genuine science from pseudo-science (his main target was psychiatry; he would not lower his dignity for astrology). Popper’s idea was that a science needed to have statements that if proven, would falsify the theory. Unfortunately, you cannot see whether an astrological prediction is false: astrologers make predictions that are so general in nature and vague in time that if nothing happens, the public forgets the prediction, and that if something does happen, the astrologers are able to shove the event into their broad prognostication. And woe to the fellow who makes a wrong specific prediction; other astrologers will not jump to his rescue. Rather, in a poor esprit de corps they dump their fellow professional and accuse him of ignorance of the proper practice of astrology.
Basu prefers a concrete attack on astrology rather than a conceptual one. Sense or Nonsense uses specific astrological terms to demonstrate the study’s obsolescence. “Retrograde” movements, for instance, are actually caused by Earth’s vantage point and are not an example of a planet’s sudden backward movement. Mars, which has a larger orbit around the Sun and has a different orbital speed, will occasionally seem to reverse direction, when actually the Earth is “overtaking” it in relation to the Sun. It is not just a matter of nomenclature but of ignorance. Similarly, the notion of rising constellations is also wrong-headed.
Sadly, some of our scientists or IT professionals take up astrology and this is shown to be proof of its intrinsic strength as a system of study. All that this proves, however, is that those individuals are worried about their future. Also, drawing up charts and the periods of dashas and mahadashas with the use of computers does not prove that astrology is scientific. That is akin to throwing a widow into an electric crematorium and saying that this is proof that sati is a modern practice.
The pervasiveness of this superstition was in evidence during the solar eclipse on the empty rooftops surrounding ours, and it was depressing. People were missing out on a wondrous miracle of nature because of a superstition. Superpower status is not going to be a consequence of the right actions at an astrologically propitious moment. It is going to happen, as former President A P J Abdul Kalam says, as the consequence of national determination to build a knowledge society. A knowledge society is based on knowledge. By no measure can astrology be called knowledge.
editorchief@epmltd.com
About The Author;
Aditya Sinha
Ten days ago India witnessed a rare natural occurrence, a total solar eclipse that lasted around six minutes. In Chennai the eclipse was partial, yet the Tamil Nadu Science Foundation found that their 50,000 filter spectacles sold out in no time at all (five of them to my family). That sounds good until you mull it over: hmmm, they made only 50,000. Chennai’s total population is estimated at around 80 lakh. This statistic came to life during an immediate post-eclipse walk to Elliot’s beach. Most mornings the beach is abuzz with the elderly on their constitutional, huddled lovers, a team sport in progress, coconut hawkers, vegetable vendors, a couple of beggars, and several inquisitive dogs. This morning only the dogs were present. Nothing else moved (other than the higher-than-usual tides lashing the beach). Everyone was hiding from the Moon-hidden Sun.
People hid because thanks to those shameless confidence tricksters known as astrologers, they thought the eclipse would bring untold catastrophe. Of course there was a joint statement with Pakistan that few Indians seemed to like; there was a G8 resolution against nuclear trade with nations like India that hadn’t signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty; there was a visit from Hillary Clinton which left many with the same queasy feeling you get in a dentist’s waiting room; and there was a nuclear end users agreement that for many conjured visions of Americans marching into our secret nuclear labs and plants for unannounced inspection tours. But none of this heralded any global or even local catastrophe. Our prime minister forcefully told the country to stop fretting and leave business to him. The solar eclipse thus was astrologically an anti-climax. Otherwise, it was an awesome event: other than my surly sleepy-headed son, my family enjoyed watching it. You could say it was auspicious, even.
It may sound hypocritical for this columnist to lambast astrology since we carry a horoscope every day (and a full page on Sundays), but let me assure you that if it weren’t for the geniuses in the sales department who insist that the paper sells only because of the horoscope, we would drop it immediately. I rant against astrology not because I am an ultra-rationalist in the mould of Mr Kalaignar; indeed it can be argued that astrology has nothing to do with faith, even if its proponents would have you think that if you don’t believe in astrology then you are an ISI agent. Religion is about ethics, metaphysics and faith, but does not pretend to be predictive, the way astrology does.
Strangely, even as US President Barack Obama cites India when urging his nation’s children to study more science and technology, a large number of our own are still slave to this pseudo-science. It is a credit to our scientists that more and more people come out to view eclipses, but it is true that many scientists still depend on horoscopes when arranging marriages. Astrology is not our tradition or culture, and if it has been part of our social life for millennia, then it needs to be immediately discarded along with sati, child marriage, dowry and caste prejudice.
Biman Basu’s Astrology: Sense or Nonsense (NBT, 81 pages, Rs 50) demonstrates how astrology exploits ignorance and anxiety. The former editor of Science Reporter points out that though astrology preceded astronomy, it is the only “science” not modified in its practice since its formalisation. Astrology arose out of the study of the movement of heavenly bodies by the ancients with the naked eye. Since then technology has made our observations and measurements more precise — most dramatically with the invention of the telescope.
One of the inventors was Galileo Galilei, who proved Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory that the Earth was not at the centre of our solar system, and that it revolved around the Sun (and not vice-versa). This was so heretical that Copernicus did not publish his findings till he was on his deathbed; as for Galileo, the Church persecuted him. Still, it had a profound effect on Western thought: it modernised science and philosophy. Empiricism came to the forefront of knowledge; and man was no longer the central idea of the Universe. Strangely, astrology did not change a bit. Perhaps this rigidity contributed to the West marching ahead while India wallowed in backwardness and foreign subjugation.
Astrology is conveniently immune to testability or falsification, which the 20th century philosopher of science Karl Popper said were the hallmarks needed to distinguish genuine science from pseudo-science (his main target was psychiatry; he would not lower his dignity for astrology). Popper’s idea was that a science needed to have statements that if proven, would falsify the theory. Unfortunately, you cannot see whether an astrological prediction is false: astrologers make predictions that are so general in nature and vague in time that if nothing happens, the public forgets the prediction, and that if something does happen, the astrologers are able to shove the event into their broad prognostication. And woe to the fellow who makes a wrong specific prediction; other astrologers will not jump to his rescue. Rather, in a poor esprit de corps they dump their fellow professional and accuse him of ignorance of the proper practice of astrology.
Basu prefers a concrete attack on astrology rather than a conceptual one. Sense or Nonsense uses specific astrological terms to demonstrate the study’s obsolescence. “Retrograde” movements, for instance, are actually caused by Earth’s vantage point and are not an example of a planet’s sudden backward movement. Mars, which has a larger orbit around the Sun and has a different orbital speed, will occasionally seem to reverse direction, when actually the Earth is “overtaking” it in relation to the Sun. It is not just a matter of nomenclature but of ignorance. Similarly, the notion of rising constellations is also wrong-headed.
Sadly, some of our scientists or IT professionals take up astrology and this is shown to be proof of its intrinsic strength as a system of study. All that this proves, however, is that those individuals are worried about their future. Also, drawing up charts and the periods of dashas and mahadashas with the use of computers does not prove that astrology is scientific. That is akin to throwing a widow into an electric crematorium and saying that this is proof that sati is a modern practice.
The pervasiveness of this superstition was in evidence during the solar eclipse on the empty rooftops surrounding ours, and it was depressing. People were missing out on a wondrous miracle of nature because of a superstition. Superpower status is not going to be a consequence of the right actions at an astrologically propitious moment. It is going to happen, as former President A P J Abdul Kalam says, as the consequence of national determination to build a knowledge society. A knowledge society is based on knowledge. By no measure can astrology be called knowledge.
editorchief@epmltd.com
About The Author;
Aditya Sinha is the Editor-in-Chief of ‘The New Indian Express’ and is based in Chennai
Comments
I challenge this super scientist to now espouse his scientific bent of mid. Jesus the mythical self proclaimed prophet claimed the earth was just 64 miles square and that firt Terorist of Kali Yug Mohd said the Sun hid behind a swamy far to the West. Let him now debunk the two utterly contemptible books the Bible and the Quran. A challenge to this heroic editor. Does this son of a Mohd (sorry I don't want to belittle female dogs) have the guts?
By Bashir 8/10/2009 9:14:00 AM
Ranjit is right about the dogs who bark at Astrology- the mother of all Sciences. If the recent Total Solar Eclipse is just an even how come all the Swine flu deaths are in the region of the the Total Solar Eclipse? How come the real swines (journos) have not got it yet? Are they the ones who spread it?
By Narasimha Rao 8/9/2009 5:01:00 PM
This science and mathematically challenged fools ante was raised and penned this article out of frustration because I had questioned his knowledge of science and maths in another context. This fool had allowed one his cub blackmailers sorry journalists had filed a report of a 4000M high peak in Kerala. And since I had supported Astrology elsewhere this fool has opened his mouth and confirmed his idiocy. Well this is not an astrological prediction but a surmise. This fool Sinha will leave NIE in disgrace by November 2010. and that is a curse. Christians like de Silva are primed by the pulpit to reject any knowledge that is not born out of the myth of the Bible or the greater myth of an imaginary prophet called jesus. Who the hellis Clarke to comment on Astrology. Astrology does not require any certificates . Let the dogs bark
By Ranjit 8/8/2009 7:08:00 PM
Once I asked Arthur C. Clarke what he thought of Astrology. He quipped, 'asshology.' Although one might call his attitude tyranny of authority, I respect the intelligence of the eminent fiction writer who commanded respect from many an astrophysicist including Dr. Stepthen Hawkings. Astrology has always been a controversial subject, and will continue to be so. Having gained parity of status with genuine science at a time when there was no distinct demarcation between the two fields, astrology continues to fascinate her loyal followers with horrorscopes. One only laments the fact that there were no more men like Dr. Abraham Kovoor, a Malayali who settled in Sri Lanka, to take on the pseudo-scientists called astrologers.
By Sherman de Silva 8/7/2009 8:10:00 AM
For the Kind Attention of Mr. Adithya Sinha; I am a professional 'Astro Meteorologist'. I did forecast the failure of 2002 Southwest monsoon, 2004 'Tsunami',2005 and 2008 floods in TN,Killer Earth Quake in China in 2008 and the current years failure of Southwest monsoon months/years ahead. I have proof of my forecast published in local tabloids. It's utterly immature on your part to condemn Indian astronomy/Astrology without doing the basic study of the subject. I am willing to share the proof from my side and also willing to give my forecast for next couple of years to make you realise your shortsidedness in writing a nonsense article.
By S. RAMACHANDRAN 8/6/2009 9:58:00 PM
The whole world evolves on faith only.We have to find the unknown from the known.Everything is of cyclic in order, and hence need repeated search for finding the truth.Even God is unknown except thru' experience of ones own actions. Sivaproactive
By V.Sivasubramaniam 8/6/2009 9:43:00 PM
These are the words of T.S.Elliot: The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to GOD. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.
By Sundararaman 8/6/2009 9:15:00 PM
Further to my earlier post. I have studied astronomy in college. I did not read Basu book/article which your ignorant in chief quotes. In astronomy we calculate and plot the position of all celestial bodies with respect to the observers position on earth. The terms used are exactly same or similar in astrology. Retrograde motions are very clearly stated in astologers as the relative movement of the planet wrt a place on earth. Nowhere in our scriptures it says that planet is actually moving reverse way in the orbit. It is unfortunate that we also have "Aditya Sinhas" and "Biman Basus" in the field of astrology who has very little or no knowledge of astronomy. Only they would make such a ridiculous statements. As far rising constellations are concerned, may I ask your ignorant-in-chief, how would you then address rising of the sun and setting of the sun ? Let me enlighten further, it is common knowledge that earth goes around the sun. But for given place an observer would see sun rising
By onenonlyone 8/6/2009 8:02:00 AM
Your Editor in chief seems to be also ignorant in chief. He quotes Copernicus and Galileo whereas he seems to be completely ignorant about the volumes of astronomical information available in our scriptures. All these are much later in time proved to be correct by modern astronomers. Even Albert Einstein has sung praises about our ancient mathemeticians and astronomers. Zero was invented very much in India. Without which no maths, science would have existed. The rant of you ignorant-in-chief, exhibits all the bias of the left pesudo intellectuals, pseudo secularists and anti nationals who abhor anything that is ethnic in India. A person who himself has not researched a subject should not comment on it. I strongly recommend that along with Sati etc., your newspaper should discard the nonsense that is written by your ignorant-in-chief.
By onenonlyone 8/6/2009 7:45:00 AM
uttar pradesh and bihar was once seat of high culture and knowledge now produces people like our great Sin ha . shooting off the mouth without using the head is not the way to go especially if you are in public sphere
By mohan 8/5/2009 2:22:00 PM
If so, how come all the minute statements about me are correct as the horoscope prediction by astrologer. I am also rational, but believe in astrology, as other plannets have influence on earth. Even on Full,new moon days, satellite moon has effect on the sea's high waves and the reaction in men. Science cannot create an independent organism or plant or stop earth. So believe in correct astrology and don't generalise by some incorrect predictions.
By Raj 8/4/2009 11:16:00 PM
Not only astrology , then God itself is a big bullshit if we think in the way the author thinks . How can one prove God , who ever it is might be Christ or Rama or Alla . It means 90% of the world population are mindless in this fast moving technical world .
By krishnachaitanya 8/4/2009 3:40:00 PM
I am not very sure if Aditya Sinha himslef ever read any Astrology treatise himself, but personally, I feel the mistake is partly due to the low quality of media as well. Earlier, during the good old days, quality of content and repute of contributors used to be quite high. But now a days, it is plummeting to ever deeper depths. Only STAR NEWS played a responsible role, they forecast an interview with the great Astrologer Sri KN Rao, wherein he dispelled the myths about Solar Eclipse that astrology quacks indulge in and terrify ordinary people. In that interview Sri KN Rao clear that Eclipses do not have anything to do with Hora, only Medni Jyotish deals with Eclipses. So from Astrology perspective an individual has nothing to do with Eclipses, forget fear them. One example of low quality media that is exploited by zealous opportunists is this particular webpage where there is an advertisement "One sexy stomach rule" with a couple of obscene images which are quite unsuitable for viewin
By Karan 8/4/2009 1:54:00 PM
be it scientific or otherwise without prior study of that branch is nothing but a mudslinging habit of the uneducated mind. When Halley, Newton's pupil criticised his teacher on Newton being an astrologer, Newton replied, "I have studied these things and you have not." Perhaps Sri Sinha is unaware of what Pscyologist Carl Jung said. Jung: "Western civilization, by ignoring Astrology, gains little and may be losing much". There are many wise comments about astrology made by both Indian and western intellectuals. Perhaps it will do good to Sri Sinha to examine evidence and read up on the subject before making pouring scorn. Sri B V Raman's quote to un-investigative critics like Sri Sinha is worth pondering. Sri Raman says, "Is your disbelief based on investigation or only on a passive second-hand acceptance of fashionable skepticism based on the prestige of science and technology?". Sri Sinha, go read on the subject before pouring vitriol on any subject. --Vande Mataram.
By Bharata 8/4/2009 11:37:00 AM
For further continuation of comments, please refer the link:
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Astrology+is+nonsense&artid=/UthzWfwQkI=&SectionID=oHSKVfNWYm0=&MainSectionID=oHSKVfNWYm0=&SectionName=aVlZZy44Xq0bJKAA84nwcg==&SEO=Hillary+Clinton,+Mr+Kalaignar,+Biman+Basu,+Galileo
