From: kenneth@ducvax.auburn.edu
Newsgroups: alt.astrology
Subject: Re: Broken cars, retrogrades, and psychic ability (?)
Date: 26 Aug 92 06:59:46 GMT


>   Now the comment about newspaper astology is quite relevant.  According to
> all the bantering than has gone back and forth you "scientific" astroloers
> look upon the newspapers with disdain and yet will not provide one ounce of
> evidence as to why they are wrong.  As far as I can see both groups have
> freverent followers but neither have any convincing evidence for their art.

Certainly, there are charlatans out there; I don't think anybody disputes
that.  As far as the newspaper things go, they are usually just so vague
that they could apply to just about anything.  They usually also have a
disclaimer that says something like "for entertainment purposes only" or some
such, but that is more likely for legal purposes.

What really gets me is that some people think that one cannot be both a 
scientist and an astrologer.  I'm actually much more versed in Astronomy
than I am in Astrology, and own my own 8" f/11 Schmidt-Cassegrain (sp?)
reflecting telescope through which I have seen all the planets except for
Pluto, which appears as a star at approx. 13th magnitude (if memory serves)
anyway.  I've seen the Galilean moons of Jupiter, the Great Red Spot, the
rings of Saturn, its' largest moon, Titan, the small and unremarkable disks
of Uranus and Neptune, I've been dazzled by the brightness of Venus and
the moon's surface, and I've seen deep-space objects such as the Trapezium
in the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda galaxy, and the effects of starlight upon
the gas surrounding the young stars of the Plieades.  Now, having observed
all these objects, among others, tells me nothing about the truth or of the
falsehood of Astrology.  Even in the "generally accepted" sciences, there
are things we know to exist but cannot find what propogates them.  For
example, we know that gravity exists and isby far the weakest of the 4
forces of the universe (1st 3 from strongest to weakest are a) strong
nuclear force, b) electromagneticism, and c) the weak nuclear force).
We know tha gravity is the 4th and weakest force.  We know how to predict
how gravity will behave in all but the most bizarre circumstances, yet we
do not know how or why it acts the way it does.  The only thing we have is
the theory of the particle or wave called the Graviton, which has been searched
for for a long time but is as yet undiscovered.  

Even the moon has effects upon human behavior.  Since humans are made up of
about 95% water, the moon's gravity directly affects us physically, and, I
don't know if this has been proven, but is at least thought by some to cause
changes in behavior, anyway.  That's where the word "lunatic" comes from,
the base word from "luna" meaning moon.

Who is to say that the planets don't have an affect on people?  Just because
a scientist can't prove that to be true?  I think it's a silly waste of time
for a person to put down astrology just because they don't understand or
can't tolerate it.  I don't thoroughly understand astrology myself, but at
least I am keeping an open mind, a mind that is trying to learn something
instead of trying to tell others why they shouldn't try (ie. it isn't
scientific).  

Ken