Astrology : A Science or Superstition?
Human
beings have always been curious to know their future.
Whenever someone is in difficulty and cannot easily
come out of it, he wants to know whether the days of
his misery will come to an end at all. And if yes,
then when? When one invests a great deal of time,
effort or money into some project, it is natural to
wonder whether that investment will bear some fruit.
There have always been people around who have
successfully predicted future events. Their methods
have been different - some people can simply look into
the future, some use tarot cards, some draw up an
astrological chart which we call horoscopes, some read
the lines in the palms of people. One cannot deny that
future has been accurately predicted many a times and
by many a people. Each successful prediction proves
that it is indeed possible to correctly predict
future.
In the
ancient times, astrologers were held to be in great
esteem by the people. There was no difference between
astronomers and astrologers. In fact, astronomy and
Astrology were not considered to be two
different subjects. Many will be surprised to know
that most of the renowned scientists of the past,
including Sir Isaac Newton, were astrologers too. In
ancient India Astrology was known as "Jyotish
Shastra" which included predictive Astrology as
well as what we know as Astronomy. Needless to say
that the astrologers of that era were all great
mathematicians too. An accomplished astrologer was
called "Trikal-darshee" : one who could see past,
present and future. It would perhaps not be an
exaggeration to say that Astrology was
considered to be the foremost branch of science.
Slowly
over a period of time this subject came into
disrepute.
How
Astrology lost its exalted status?
It is a
fact of life that people emulate successful, popular
and respected persons. Seeing the social status
enjoyed by astrologers, charlatans started
masquerading as astrologers. They learnt a few tricks
of the trade and started duping gullible people. It
was and still is a very lucrative business. An
astrologer earns money by making predictions while
giving no guarantee that any of his predictions will
turn out to be true. There is no money back guarantee
:-). Once an astrologer sets up shop, people start
coming to him in the hope that may be he will be able
to foresee their future correctly. The astrologer is
in a wonderful position. For example, he may make
predictions about ten persons, getting only one
prediction right. The nine persons, about whom he
predicted wrongly, will never come back to him. But
the tenth person, about which the astrologer was able
to predict correctly, will not only come back to him
again but also refer many other persons to him, citing
personal experience. In this way, the business of an
astrologer always flourishes, no matter how he himself
fares in his trade. But the downside of this was that
astrologers, as a group, started being seen as a lot
of dubious persons like politicians of the modern age.
Once such impression started gaining ground, Astrology
as a subject no longer remained attractive to
intelligent persons. People, who had talent, started
to pursue other fields of knowledge. Over a period of
time, the inevitable happened. No talent, worth its
salt, chose to pursue Astrology as a vocation or
a hobby and the outcome of this is for everyone to see
in the present times.
There
was one more very important reason for Astrology
becoming one of the lesser fields of knowledge. It was
the decline of India, the fountainhead of human
civilization, and its loss of status as the repository
of all the knowledge of the ancient world (see
How India lost its Glory).
The Islamic hordes, who attacked and looted India many
a times and later ruled that country for hundred of
years, had no respect for priceless works of art, the
magnificent architecture and the other exalted areas
of human endeavor. They destroyed most of the ancient
temples, burnt down libraries like Nalanda and
Takshshila and permanently took away innumerable books
of infinite wisdom from the future generations of
humanity. A great amount of recorded knowledge was
lost, astrological books included. This loss proved to
be irreparable, as the then Indian society became
engaged in ensuring its survival and a constant
struggle against the aggressors. The few people, who
had some invaluable texts and scriptures with them,
were hard put to preserve the remaining works of
ancient sages. That is why, when one studies Astrology
, he feels as if some vital links are missing. With
the Hindu philosophy losing its ground it was natural
that Astrology would lose its prominent place
too. As the modern science developed and the
scientific temperament gained ground, with the dearth
of genuine astrologers, Astrology started fading
into oblivion.
The
criticism and The defense
Astrology is scoffed at by people for two main
reasons. First, of course, is that the predictions
made by astrologers often goes wrong. Secondly, if one
takes his horoscope to different astrologers, they
make different predictions. They even make different
horoscopes given the same set of data regarding the
birth of a person. These facts force people conclude
that Astrology is not a science and that it is
only a means to befool people for the astrologers'
benefit.
One
cannot deny that the reasons cited above are valid.
Nonetheless, there is some element of prejudice
against Astrology which also plays some part in
the denigration of this subject. Let us take an
example to illustrate this point.
A man falls sick due to some disease. He goes to his
neighborhood doctor. The doctor advises him to go for
some tests. After seeing the results of those tests
and considering the patient's symptoms, the doctor
concludes that the man has contracted some particular
disease say, Sickosis :-). He prescribes some
medicines and the patient goes home in the hope of
getting rid of the sickness as soon as possible. After
taking the medicines for next two days, the patient
finds that the medicines are not working the way they
were supposed to work. He goes back to the doctor and
the doctor changes the medicines and the person starts
responding to the second set of medication
immediately. Within a few days, the person is back to
his old healthy self.
What would have happened if the person had not
responded to that second set of medicines? Most
probably he would have gone to another doctor. That
doctor would have advised him to go for more tests,
diagnosed his problem as per his own knowledge and
experience and treated him accordingly. Again, there
would have been the same probability of the patient
getting rid of his disease.
So, in the end it boils down to problem of correct
diagnosis. As soon as the disease is identified
correctly, it can be treated successfully. The
doctor's problem is to identify the disease correctly,
given the symptoms and the results of the tests
conducted. In fact, he guesses the disease based on
the symptoms the patient displays and to confirm his
suspicions the doctor asks the patient to undergo a
particular set of tests. If the doctor's first guess
is proved wrong, he suggests another set of tests to
the patient aimed at confirming his second best guess
of the disease.
There is one more element which may mar the chances of
the patient getting better: the test results. If the
lab conducting those tests makes a mistake, the doctor
is bound to be misled by the results. It has also been
observed many a times that even with the same symptoms
and the same set of test results, different doctors
may diagnose the problem differently.
The same
thing, when happening in the context of Astrology , is
proffered as a proof that it is not a science. When a
doctor makes a mistake, his skills are blamed not the
Medical Science. But if an astrologer fails, it is
Astrology which is considered a pseudo-science. If
doctors can arrive at different conclusions on the
basis of same data, why astrologers should not be
allowed to differ with each other. If you take the
blood samples of the same patient to different labs,
you are almost certain to find differences in their
findings. If the machines built with all our
scientific knowledge at our disposal make mistakes, no
one denigrates modern science itself. But when it
comes to Astrology, people are only too ready to
dismiss it. Perhaps, by doing this, people want to
prove that they have, what is called, scientific
temperament.
Why Astrologers go wrong in their prediction?
-
Lack of knowledge: This is perhaps the foremost
reason. Most of the astrologers, after learning a
bit, find it difficult to resist the temptation to
start making predictions. A certain percentage of
their predictions do turn out to be true since they
have learnt a little bit of Astrology after
all. They cannot hold themselves back from showing
off their half baked knowledge. Another reason if
the temptation to start reaping, as soon as
possible, the fruits of their efforts made in
learning the subject. Once the customers start
flocking to them, they lose the urge to keep
learning further. Also, they are left with little
spare time to make further efforts to learn more.
They get too busy duping people.
-
Lack of Talent: In the modern times, since
the pursuit of this subject is not considered very
respectable, persons of genius do not take up the
study of Astrology. They would rather prefer to
become scientists, engineers, doctors, littérateurs,
artists etc. This does not help the development of
Astrology nor does it help add to the knowledge or
find the missing links in this subject. Currently,
there are no serious research projects related to
this field. Thus this base of knowledge does not get
updated.
-
Incorrect Data: As the very basis of Astrology
is mathematical, the data such as time of birth etc.
must be accurate. If this data is incorrect, the
horoscope and consequently the interpretation of it
is bound to be faulty. The position of cusps, house
divisions, and the planetary positions at any given
moment needs to be accurate too. The numerous
ephemeris differ from each other so much that
it seems incredible. One must follow the most
accurate data (for example, from NASA) for
calculations, in this age of science. Normally,
astrologers tend to take the easy route, that of
following some ready-reckoner sort of things,
leading to inaccuracies in their calculations.
-
Destiny of the subject: It may so happen that
the fate of the person who wants his future read,
does not favor the person in knowing his future.
This idea may seem far fetched but it is not. Even
in modern times, with all the development of medical
science, patients keep dying of fully treatable
diseases. If a person is destined to die of
pneumonia, he will in spite of the fact that
millions of people around the world are successfully
treated for it every year. If fate can play a role
here why cannot it play the same role regarding
Astrology.
-
The
very nature of Future: Modern science divides
the universe in two parts: known and the unknown. It
is believed that whatever is unknown today, will
become known tomorrow. Over a period of time, every
thing will become known one day. But the enlightened
sages have said that certain aspects of the
existence is unknowable. These things do not belong
in the domain of human knowledge. Certain aspects of
future also belongs to the same domain.
Anyone,
who will study Astrology with an open mind, cannot
dismiss it as something without merit. It is an easy
task for astrologers to correctly tell certain things
about a man, such as his physical characteristics,
diseases he is likely to get afflicted with, his
temperament, his overall success in life in terms of
money he earns or fame he achieves, the nature of his
profession etc., simply by looking at his
correctly drawn horoscope. It is in the matters of
details and the timing of events that astrologers tend
to go awry. What is needed is a fresh approach to the
subject. Brilliant minds should take it up for study,
correct some anomalies and misconceptions which this
science has acquired over the long past. Then only
this subject can regain its rightful place as a
serious and important branch of knowledge.
I have received many
responses to this article, but probably the best one in my view is what
Mr Nidhin S. Pillai wrote to me quite some time back:
Mr AK Gupta,
Sir i just read your article about astrology, if
it is a superstition or not.Well as far as i understand u r claiming
that astrology is a true science and everything said in it is true.
I contradict it sir. Firstly science means
something on which hypothesis & observation has been done many times and
a resulting solid theorem or principle has been formulated which has a
solid proof! For eg: Einstein eqn. e= mc^2..There is a proof and
corollary for this eqn. Which means there is a strong base for this eqn.
and hw many evr times we do the proof, the same end result will be
obtained.
In astrology hw can u claim such a thing! Yes
there might be calculations and permutations, bt then why does the end
result differ when done by different people?! Why does there be no solid
surety that end result will be correct! Its just a matter of luck. If
the astrologer is lucky he will get his predictions correct! As in a
science, there is no strict rule in astrology that such and such
hypothesis leads to a very specific theorem or answer!
You talked about medical science. I accept your
arguements upto an extent. Doctors do go wrong with their diagnosis. But
suppose a person with a disease, say cancer goes to 5 doctors. 4 out of
the 5docs will diagonise the disease correctly. Since medicine is a true
science, probability of getting predictions correct is very high! To
back these predictions we have so many equipments now. A scanning or x
ray can never go wrong because it shows the internal condition of the
patient's body!
I am an electrical engineer and so i know what
true science means. All the characteristics and theory of machines i
have learnt in my books, i have seen and experienced it practically too.
Each and everyday the machines behave the same! It is not a hit and miss
game like astrology.So i wont say astrology is a complete pseudo science
but yes many things in it have have no basis or logic or rationale..we
all shud believ in hardwork and god's grace!
Thank you, Mr Pillai for
your nice response. I am an engineer too, and I know what you have said.
I do agree with you; Astrology doesn't have enough in it to be called
"Science" in the modern times.
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