Astrology and the Modern Understanding of the Universe

Astrology is a form of divination that uses the positions of stars, planets, sun and moon to gain insight into peoples personality's and predict the future. Astrology has been around for thousands of years. Millions of people use astrology in their daily lives and millions of astrologers make their living with astrology.

Historically astrology astrology has had many forms and still does to this day. The most popular is Sun Sign but astrology there is also Horoscopic astrology, Chinese astrology, Vedic astrology, etc. Most forms of astrology use the zodiac.

The zodiac uses 12 signs (in the west: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces) based on the 12 constellations that bares their names. The zodiac sign you are under is based on the date of your birth. If you were born between December 23 and January 20 you are a capricorn but if you were born between January 21 and February 19 you are an Aquarius.

Chinese astrology uses a zodiac based on 12 year cycles. The year you where born in effects your personality as dose the positions of the stars, planets, sun and moon at the time you where born.

How astrology could work

Lets assume for the moment that astrology works; the planets, stars, sun and moon effect us. How does it effect us? There has to be some way for the planets, stars, sun and moon to transmit the astrological effects. Lets look at how the planets, stars, sun and moon could effect us.

Fundamental forces
There are four fundamental forces of nature. Strong force, weak force, gravity and electro magnetism.

The strong force (like its name implies) is the strongest of the four fundamental forces. It is the force that holds atoms together. The strong force as strong as it is only works on a very small scale, its range is only 10^-15 meters, it can't work over macroscopic distances. So it can not be responsible for transmitting the astrological effects.

The electro magnetic force is the next strongest force. Any time you have used a magnet you have witnessed the effects of the electro magnetic force, the computer I'm typing this on and the computer you are reading this on both run on electricity and we are able to use electricity because of the electro magnetic force. The electro magnetic force decays exponentially, the effects of an objects electromagnetic properties weaken to the inverse square of the distance that means if you have two objects the seconded twice as far from a source of a magnetic field as the first the strength of the magnetic field would be four times weaker for the second object. So the electro magnetic force can not be responsible for transmitting the astrological effects.

The weak force (like its name implies) is very weak with a strength of only 10^-6. The weak force is responsible for nuclear decay. The weak force changes protons into neutrons allowing nuclear fusion in stars including the sun. Like I said above the weak force is weak (but not the weakest force) and like the strong force it works over a very small scale, its range is only 10^-18 meters. So the weak force can not be responsible for the astrological effect.

Gravity is the weakest of the forces. "But how can that be?" your probably thinking. Imagine two protons floating out in space, the gravity of these two protons is so weak that it is effectively non-existent but the electromagnetic force is strong enough to cause the two protons to repel each other. If you get enough mass in a small enough area the combined mass of the particles and energy in that area would be enough to create a strong gravitational field. While the range of gravity is infinite, its strength is only 6*10^-39 and like electromagnetism it decays exponentially (inverse square of the distance) and while we do have massive planets like Jupiter, its distance (even at its closest point) means that its gravitational effect on the earth and humans is far less that the much less massive moon. So gravity can not be responsible for the astrological effect

Hypothetical astrological force
So we are all out of forces. But if astrology works than there has to be some force behind it, lets call this a hypothetical astrological force. Lets logically examine the propertys of such a force.

The hypothetical astrological force would have infinite range.

Its effects would not decay over distance (Jupiter has the same effect as the moon).

Its effect is equal regardless of the size of the source (Sun has the same effect as the Mars).

All forces are transmitted by particles. The strong force is transmitted by gluons, the electromagnetic force is transmitted by photons, the weak force is transmitted by w and z bosons and gravity is transmitted by gravitons. The hypothetical astrological force would need a particle too. Lets call this particle "astrolon".

Anything that is transmitted omnidirectionally (in all directions) will decay exponentially (to the inverse square of the distance) so the astrolons would have to be aimed at earth but because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light the astrolons would have to be aimed at the position the earth will be when the astrolons arrive. Nothing in nature can do this, in fact it would requirer some intelligence to direct the astrolons to the right position.

If the strength of the astrological effects is independent of the size and mass of an object then objects like comments and meteors should be astrologically equal to Jupiter, the Moon and the Sun but astrologers do not take these into account and even if they tried we don't know where all of them are and what the orbits of all of them are thus its impossible to take them all into account, worse there are many objects in Kuiper belt, the Oort cloud and just floating around the solar system that we do not know about. Neptune, Uranus, the Kuiper belt, the Oort cloud, the Astroid belt, all the asteroids known and unknown today were unknown when the various forms of astrology where developed. The noise from these unknown objects (past and present) would make any accurate astrological predictions impossible.

Maybe its all coincidence. Maybe the force affecting us have nothing to do with the positions of the planets, stars, sun and moon and astrologies predictive power is purely coincidental. Well then you have to throw the whole basis for astrology out the window. It has no predictive power, its all coincidence.

Other problems with astrology

Free will
If astrology can predict the future using the positions of the stars, planets sun and moon that means the positions of the stars, planets, sun and moon are controlling your personality and actions. In other words you have no free will, you are controlled by the stars.
Of course not all astrologers will agree with this, they may say "the stars don't control you they just influence you, you still have a choice". But if the stars only influence you then you can not use astrology to predict the future, you can only use it to predict future influences not actions or events. To predict actions and event there would have to be external control over people and thus no free will.

The many forms of astrology
As said in the "What is astrology" section, there are different forms of astrology. These different forms of astrology can be incompatible with each other. If astrology works than why are there different, incompatible forms of astrology? If astrology works; witch one? Ask different astrologers and you'll get different answers. If one of the forms of astrology really has predictive power than due to that predictive power it should not only be the dominant form of astrology it should have formed multiple times, in different parts of the world independently from the other forms like it. That didn't happen, different forms of astrology formed in different parts of the world, the different forms incompatible with each other.

Precession
It is common knowledge that the earth rotates on its axis, what is not common knowledge that axis changes. Relative to the rest of the universe the earths axis itself rotates. This is called Precession. Precession is causing earths axis to slowly move westward by 1 degree every 72 years. The signs of the zodiac where developed roughly 2,700 years ago, in that time the earth axis has changed by 37.5 degrees or a chance of 10.42% which means that everybody is wrong about what sign they were born under and so are the astrologers.

Why do people believe in astrology?

It give people a sense of order and control
There are many forms of divination, from reading tea leaves to palm reading to reading the entrails of animals. The main reason any one believes in any form of divination is: the world is chaotic. What underlying order there is, is imperceptible. People want to feel like they have some sort of control and or that there is some form of order in this chaotic world of ours. Astrology gives people a sense of control, using astrology you can predict things and thus have some level of control over them and it gives people a sense of order in the world.

Confirmation bias
But simply because a belief makes people feel better does not mean that they will accept that belief. People are not infallible and nether is our minds perception and memory.
We don't remember everything, most of what we see and hear doesn't make it into our long term memory, most does not even make it into our short term memory. Our brains can be selective about what does. For example: you dream that something will happen, later that event happens. You will remember that but you will forget all the times you dreamt something will happen and it didn't happen. Thats called confirmation bias, you remember the hits and you forget the misses.

Fallible memory
Memory's are not static, memory's can fade and change. Example: you remember something from 30 years ago but your memory of the event is not the same as it was 20 years ago, the memory has changed.

Cold reading
Cold reading is a techniques used by so called psychics, mediums, astrologers, magicians and other diviners to get information about someone to feed back to the them. A person using cold reading will as a series of vague questions, these questions may become less vague as time goes on, the diviner uses already gained information to ask more specific questions. Example: "You have lost some one, some one close to you? [client answers] It was a woman, an older woman? [client answers] You and her where very close? [client answers] There was a fight in the family, over something of hers? [client answers]".

Vague predictions
When astrologers and other diviners make predictions, these predictions tend to be vague and can fit multiple circumstances. Due to the fallibility of human memory (as pointed out above) people will remember the prediction as more specific than it actually was.

Links & sources

Astrology
Wikipedia - Atrology
About.com - Astrology
Skepdic.com - Astrology

Fundamental forces
Hyper Physics Fundamental Forces
Wikipedia - Fundamental Interaction
About.com - Physics - What are the Fundamental Forces of Physics?

Precession
From Stargazers to Starships - Precession
Earths Observatory - Earth's Orbital Precession
Wikipedia - Axial precession (astronomy)

Cold reading
Skepdic.com - Cold Reading
Wikihow - How to Cold Read
JREF - Library - Cold Reading

Memory
Stanford Journal of Legal Studies - The Problem with Eyewitness Testimony
Neuroscience, Memory and Social Manipulation

Confirmation bias
Science daily - Confirmation bias
Scientific American - Why Our Brains Do Not Intuitively Grasp Probabilities