What makes astrology false?

I consider astrology as one of those romantic but false ideas that unfortunately infest our incredible planet. It is less benign than homeopathy but like many other fallacies that survive in the masses, it offers the inescapable seduction of sharing a grand delusion with many others. Their is comfort in numbers. Consider the ubiquity of this imaginary nonsense which assumes many aliases as "tarot reading", "palmistry" and "numerology" to name a few. You can see sun sign forecasts on TV shows, star signs posted on blog profiles of seemingly intelligent individuals with a college degrees, reputed newspapers and media outfits which carry columns with forecasts or occasionally hear of some anecdotal testimonial from a friend about some great astrologer with a impeccable track record of accurate predications. I have astrologers in my own family.

There is no controversy on the status of astrology in popular culture - it enjoys a comfortable nest in the social fabric of our society. Even though anybody with basic critical reasoning tools and motivation to research the matter can independently arrive at the same conclusion as any intellectually honest person familiar with the scientific process can and have. There is no scientific evidence that astrology works or has ever worked. None! The Sagittarius constellation does not affect your character and life anymore than does an arbitrary constellation that you have the imagination to conceive of and name while gazing at the night sky.

There is no reason to believe in astrology - it is a waste of time and resources. As a likely predecessor of astronomy it probably served some utilitarian purposes for our ancestors e.g. to plot the movement of sun through the celestial configurations thereby providing a model that predicts the periodicity of seasons so crops may be harvested in a timely manner or for sea-faring sailors to have a frame of reference to perform navigational calculations in a predictable and accurate manner. These functions of astrology have long been refined first through astronomy and then replaced with more sophisticated tools provided by science such as the modern calendar and GPS. However, the other superstitious aspects of the belief system still survive.

Astrology is a relic of human intellect from a time when our fore-fathers extended their reverence to anything that offered any semblance of hope and control on their relatively ignorant life by today's standards. These notions, I imagine, were easily mangled together - some true evidenced based facts with superstitious "mumbo-jumbo" into one wholesome belief system. In it's form as an "allegorical reality", it was easily passed on to subsequent generation with sincerity and good intent who took it at face value. I can certainly imagine my nth great-grandfather eager and willing to accept the exaggerated influence of any method or process from his father, a credible source, which offered an explanation or mechanisms for control over his life. The credible chain of dissemination, the "confirmation bias", other priorities and a lack of awareness & resources to carry out a thoughtful inquiry making it possible to propagate and aid the survival of traditional belief systems without regard to evidence or lack thereof.

You - the modern day man or women have no such excuse given the resources available to you. Their should be no embarrassment for you to walk away from the fondly held beliefs of your loved ones and society if no evidence supporting those belief systems exist. If you don't make an effort to question things then I can make a case that you are just being intellectually lazy and your lethargy carries a liability for us all.

Our ancestors believed in many other myths and in greater proportion as a society than we do today. It is simply absurd to hold on to a belief which cannot stand the test of reason in light of what we now know. It is incumbent on every educated person to not simply accept a belief in the name of tradition without a reasonable degree of investigation into the "claimed facts" using the resources that are easily available to us all - least of which is our endowment for critical reasoning. Go ahead and use the internet to research the data and decide for yourself.

If astrology has served as a guide in your own personal decision-making, you are placing yourself at a serious disadvantage because your assumptions are blatantly false based on pseudo-science for which no evidence exists. And if you are the kind of person that readily accepts ideas to be true just because many others believe it - then the education system has either failed or been simply wasted on you. To give credence to a belief system without good and defensible reasons is irresponsible. There are some gray areas in many scientific theories but astrology is not in the gray zone. The jury is not out on this one. If you fail to exercise critical reasoning - you provide, unwittingly and perhaps unwillingly, the kind of fertile soil that makes it possible for dangerous ideas to remain unchecked and flourish only to increase unnecessary human suffering. Yes you are killing little babies with your ignorance.

I dare a challenge....
If you can provide any evidence that is consistent with the scientific process that astrology is true, I will hand you all the tea in and the sate of China. This I can do with the power of astrology that you have taken the time to provide scientific evidence for. I will start by acquiring venture capital to control the stock market with the tools that your "Science of Astrology" will provide me with. As a trillionaire, with the understanding of the celestial forces to manipulate events on the planet, I will recruit all the Leos and begin a process of impregnating thousands of willing and compatible women to father a super-child under the most powerful star sign. I will then use this super-child and all the army of Leos to dominate the planet and get rid of all astrologers and any knowledge of this scared science to ensure my dominion and continuity of megalomania.

If that sounds absurd then here are some reasonable arguments on what makes astrology false:
http://www.rashi12.com/Astrology_Fake/

There are many aspects of astrology that can and have been debunked. This one from Darren Brown in particular demonstrates "confirmation bias" that we are all vulnerable to and is often exploited by astrologers and fortune-tellers.



The more important question, it seems, is how and why does astrology enjoy this obscene levels of acceptance and popularity if it is false and without evidence?

iReasoning intended audience

The main audience for this blog are my friends and family, many of whom I love dearly and care for. And it often seems strange to me that despite their demonstrated skepticism in many areas of life there are still some myths and superstitions that they readily entertain in their minds as credible.

This has lead to a process of self-inquiry about what is it, exactly, that make us believe that something is true? For something to be true, does there need to be evidence? if yes, then why do so many of us demonstrate faith in beliefs that are neither reasonable nor for which any credible evidence exists?

Off the top of my head, I intend to tackle notions that plague our society from relatively benign falsehoods like astrology to the more dangerous belief systems like religion that affect public policy. I don't intend to be offensive for the sake of being offensive. I intend to use reason, evidence and understanding to get the point across except perhaps when the intention is to be provocative or funny. If in any way what I say here offends your sensibilities, by all means, please bring it to my attention and, at the very least, I will promise you a fair debate. Lets reason together!