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Astrology Rant

Matabiri

Graduate Poster
Matabiri
Joined
Oct 1, 2003
Messages
1,732
Rather splendid rant about astronomy in the Guardian:

A friend and I have parted company. The separation papers cite "irreconcilable differences"...

"I'm a typical Pisces and my mum's a typical Leo."

"You're a fatuous insult to the species. You should be stripped and burned at the stake of commonsense. I will stoke the fires with Jonathan Cainer horoscopes ripped untimely from the Daily Mail, and as the flames lick ever higher, I will suck the smell of grilled moron greedily down into my lungs."

"What star sign are you?"

"I'm whatever sign whose prediction this week read, 'On Sunday, a friend who has masqueraded as a rational human being for the 15 years of your acquaintance will stand revealed before you as just another cack-brained, gibbering fool swirling in a festering cesspit of stupidity'."...

For astrology and the rest to flourish it is only necessary that those with an IQ in double figures do nothing.
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I really enjoyed reading that in my Guardian this morning.

I shall be watching the letters page with extra interest over the next few days, to see if there's any reaction. There was the last time the Guardian printed Simon Hoggart's anti-astrology views:

· A very funny letter arrives, via our editor, from Peta High DF AstrolS; RC Astrol (aren't those qualifications impressive?), complaining on behalf of the Association of Professional Astrologers International about something I wrote the other day. This suggested, would you believe, that astrology is a load of twaddle.

If I could fight my way through the prose ("It ill behoves a national newspaper." When did anyone last behove anything? It sounds like Dick Emery: "Oh, do behove!"), Ms High seems to be implying that whereas newspaper astrologers are mere foolish amateurs, she and her colleagues are serious scientists. "Does Mr Hoggart imagine that all these people, whose academic qualifications, as well as astrological ones, far excel his own, are deranged?"

Obviously the answer to that is yes. But how does she know what my academic qualifications are? As it happens, I have a degree in English, a subject which at least exists.
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I just submitted an article about astrology for my Night Sky magazine column. It was originally more general, but my editor wanted sun-sign specific topics. I may take the original version and put it on my website. It's about time I take on astrology... like I'm not busy enough. :p
 
Pixel42 said:
I really enjoyed reading that in my Guardian this morning.

I shall be watching the letters page with extra interest over the next few days, to see if there's any reaction. There was the last time the Guardian printed Simon Hoggart's anti-astrology views:
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The Simon Hoggart piece which provoked the letter can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1222295,00.html

It was provoked by Percy Seymour's book The Scientific Proof of Astrology. The publisher of this book (at least in the UK) is called "Foulsham", which I think says it all.:D
 
One of my girlfriend's friends have named thier child Leo because it's his starsign.
The trouble is that they have determined this from the dates posted in newpapers (July 22nd through August 22nd) and not the actual position of the Sun at the time of his birth.
That'll be embaressing if the astrologers actually bother to update thier calendar.
 
More of the same ... :D


Why, many formerly trusting followers of horoscopes may be asking, was this colossal event not presaged in the stars? Or, failing that, in someone's palm, crystal ball, tea leaves or chicken's entrails? How, in the circumstances, are they to carry on believing? If an event such as this can go unpredicted by leading, professional astrologers, could it mean the whole edifice of astrology is an abject superstition?
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Flo said:
More of the same ... :D
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From the website mentioned in today's Guardian piece:
"Planet Sedna" named after the inuit goddess of the sea

Could the discovery of this small object in outer space have links with Great Indian Ocean tsunami?

...

So following the myth, the planet Sedna should manifest as stormy and vengeful seas or stormy divisions within families and cultures among other possibilities. (emphasis in original)
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So now we know whose fault the tsunami was. It was those pesky astronomers, naming their new planet after a sea goddess.

Why couldn't they have named it after Ninkasi? :D
 
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