It was just another Tuesday night; a night perfectly suited to be labeled a Tuesday. I was up much later than I should have been, clumsily strumming my guitar and trying to sort out the headaches on paper disguised as guitar tabs. A dear friend of mine was keeping me company, and we were merrily chit-chatting away about anything and everything. If someone decided to listen to us from outside the door, I’m sure they would have assumed there were five people in the room and not just simply two. While in the middle of describing to my friend all about my latest potential love interest, I thought out loud to myself, “I haven’t asked him what his sign is yet…”
It was an innocent and natural thought to think, right? It was, until about a split second after the words left my mouth, I remembered exactly which friend I was saying this to.
The room went dead silent. I looked up at my friend to find him frozen-faced, bewildered, and with eyes so wide they could have been screaming, “What did you just say?”
I sighed the King of Sighs and took a gulp, preparing myself for what was about to come. The bomb was about to explode.
“WHAT did you just say?!,” my friend roared.
“Nothing, err. I was just wondering what his sign might be, that’s all.”
“Astrology is nonsense. I don’t waste my time believing in it, and neither should you. It’s all fake and doesn’t help you see anything about yourself or the world around you. Unless you can present me with scientific evidence right now that astrology is somewhat true, then it isn’t true. Don’t even dream of telling me that horoscopes are accurate – a vague random one-liner that’s supposed to sum up my day and turns out being fairly accurate doesn’t cut it as evidence.”
Here I was, a firm believer in astrology for what has been years, being asked to prove to a skeptic within one conversation that astrology is not fake. The truth is, I didn’t have any scientific evidence. I didn’t have textbooks, quotes made by any scientists or philosophers, or theories. I wasn’t prepared, and I wasn’t prepared because of one simple reason. It never once crossed my mind that people get angry over subjects as harmless as astrology. It’s just astrology, I thought.
Article comments
1 - Xavier Reiss
There are many astrological methodologies to choose from as there are religions. Find the truth in the midst of illusions is the key, astrology is ancient and diverse, have you considered Astropyschology ?
2 - Yellow Pixie
Xavier,
Nope, I haven't heard of Astropsychology. I'll check it out.
-Yellow
3 - Jon Sobel
I think friends need to be sensitive to their friends' beliefs and disbeliefs. But in principle: if your friend was asking for scientific proof, he/she was probably looking for something to back up statements like you make here: "There are more Gemini celebrities than any other sign, and more Scorpios choose to become doctors and medical professionals than any other sign." If these statements are true, that means someone's studied the data and come to these conclusions. So... where are they? I'm curious, because in the little I've read about astrology I've never seen anything like this. And it would be an awfully easy kind of study to do. For example, look at people who get to a certain level on American Idol, or people who've won Nobel Prizes, or people who become pro golfers... anything you like could be a study subject. Are there studies like this?
4 - rakesh singhal
we agree with your point.
In lifescape astrology , we don consider signs at all , only planets and angles between them.
Regarding scientific evidence, you can add variou charts to wiki and see the lifescape explanations. repeatability of the principles is the evidence.
rakesh singhal
5 - Scott
People are most like their sun sign becuase almost everyone in America knew a trait from their sign during their childhood or adolescent years. This allows us to be one of those main traits. Scoripio- Sexy, Pisces-Artist, Aries-Go getter, Cancer-Emotional ect.
This is why astrology "works". If you think otherwise then collect the $1 million reward www.randi.org and use it to open up astrology schools or food kitchens.
6 - Penny
There is also no proof of God yet people believe there is one.
7 - Derp
Astrology has traditionally placed importance on the placement of constellations in the night sky - but why? Constellations are created by us and do not exist independently, so how can they influence our lives? This shows that astrology is not science, but magic.
8 - J.J.
Penny, actually there is proof. You can't prove that there isn't God, can you?
9 - Christopher Rose
J.J. - go on, I'll bite; what is the proof (you do know what the word means, right?) of god you refer to?
10 - Dr Dreadful
I think J.J.'s line of reasoning is this, Chris: You can't prove that God doesn't exist, therefore he exists.
In which case, congratulations, J.J.: you have also just proved the existence of Zeus, the Muslim paradise, Joseph Smith's golden plates, ghosts, aliens and an invisible man-eating cherry pie that lives under my bed and comes out at night to tap-dance up and down the street, pausing only to snack on homeless people.
11 - Spiro Sakelaropoulos
I'm fond of lying about my birthday and astrological sign to people that ask me. Oh the fun that ensues when their pea brans find out the truth!