Astrology.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Red Devil

why are people so gullible? There must be at leats 50 million of them here in the UK. Some people even think soaps are REAL!!!

Wishful thinking?....a wired in desire to believe in something bigger?....vulnerable to suggestion moments?...perhaps reality is too mundane? It's hard to say. Psychics, UFOs, Bigfoot, ghost hunters, spoon-benders..all this rubbish just recycles and recycles generation after generation despite the fact that none of it ever pans out to a feasible scientific conclusion. I find it amusing that we seem to go through an impending "End of the World" event every few years. When the moment passes and we're all still here, it seems to have no effect on certain people breathlessly lining up for the next apocalyptic claptrap prediction.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Red Devil

Some people even think soaps are REAL!!!

I remember an incident long ago here in the US. The stars of a certain soap opera were doing an autograph signing, when the actress who played a particularly nasty character was approached by a fan who started demanding to know why she was so mean to the fan's favorite characters. It took more than a bit of "I'm not her! I just play her on television!" to get the woman calmed down.

Originally Posted by Torplexed

What in seven Hells!?

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I remember an incident long ago here in the US. The stars of a certain soap opera were doing an autograph signing, when the actress who played a particularly nasty character was approached by a fan who started demanding to know why she was so mean to the fan's favorite characters. It took more than a bit of "I'm not her! I just play her on television!" to get the woman calmed down.

The guy who played Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I, Ray Park, was attacked by some idiots in a bar because "he killed Qui-Gon!".

The world is a weird place

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

The guy who played Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I, Ray Park, was attacked by some idiots in a bar because "he killed Qui-Gon!".

How did they recognize him?

You reminded me of yet another similar story. I have a copy of the 1939 movie Frank and Jesse James, which stared Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power in the title roles, and featured John Carradine as Robert Ford. The booklet quotes Carradine as saying that at the premier he was confronted by a young boy who asked if he killed Jesse. Carradine said that when he replied "Yes" the kid kicked him on the shin and ran away.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

How did they recognize him?

Not sure, they may have talked to him or something.
Then you have 'making of's' who often show actors without any make up/costume.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Carradine said that when he replied "Yes" the kid kicked him on the shin and ran away.

Well deserved.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

The world is a weird place

The world is as nature intends it. The world is populated by a lot of weird people.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

What in seven Hells!?



The world is a weird place

Precisely: according to the Bard

Originally Posted by u crank

The world is as nature intends it. The world is populated by a lot of weird people.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.... Last scene of all,
That (last hell) ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything

[AngusJS]

Total BS. There is no possible way stars and planets that are so far away, they are just points of light only visible at night, could have any effect on human behavior.

Imagine just how complex life is - how many millions of factors, large and small, must be taken into account to even attempt to predict someone's future. Astrologers can't possibly predict anything.

Imagine all the factors that come together to mold one's personality - how can just knowing when someone is born allow you to describe their personality? And which personality - the "personality" they have at birth? Adolescence? Adulthood? And regardless, your personality is always in flux, because you're never the same person you were yesterday.

And of course astrology has been debunked experimentally time and again.

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by AngusJS

Total BS. There is no possible way stars and planets that are so far away, they are just points of light only visible at night, could have any effect on human behavior.

Imagine just how complex life is - how many millions of factors, large and small, must be taken into account to even attempt to predict someone's future. Astrologers can't possibly predict anything.

Imagine all the factors that come together to mold one's personality - how can just knowing when someone is born allow you to describe their personality? And which personality - the "personality" they have at birth? Adolescence? Adulthood? And regardless, your personality is always in flux, because you're never the same person you were yesterday.

And of course astrology has been debunked experimentally time and again.

I read in a book a person saying to another person. "Let me get this right, Pluto had to do with a persons IQ. Does this mean that before Pluto was discovered, we the humans were..."(The word which was written, are not allowed here at Subsim)

Markus

[Red Devil]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I read in a book a person saying to another person. "Let me get this right, Pluto had to do with a persons IQ. Does this mean that before Pluto was discovered, we the humans were..."(The word which was written, are not allowed here at Subsim)

Markus

exactly!!

[Wolferz]

Numerology.

And then ...
Scientology.

Anything to get those special Mormon knickers in a twist.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Anything to get those special Mormon knickers in a twist.

Way back in the '70s I saw a bumper sticker that said "Welcome to Utah! If you think our liquor laws are funny, wait 'til you see our underwear!"

[Bilge_Rat]

burn the witch...

people dropped out of organised religion, but replaced it with Astrology instead...go figure...

[Pisces]

Clearly by the amount of ridicule in this thread I can safely say that n̶̶̶o̶̶̶n̶̶̶e̶̶̶ ̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶ most of you don't know of what you speak or how an astrologer comes to their findings.

[EDIT]Judging by the poll results I was guilty of generalizing. Apologies.


Have you tried to learn and do it yourself (sincerely!!!!)?

Have you tried to understand how an astrological chart is made?

Have you tried to understand how planetary/sun/moon positioning are translated to words.

Have you figured out it is not about the stationary distant specs of light in the sky, but it is actually about the wandering ones near by? Which includes the single near star, and our moon.

Have you figured out that it is about the angular (relative) positioning along the orbit of the sun-earth system, and so the relative placing in the flow of the seasons? Not the placement between the arbitrary grouping of the stars.

If you ever did get a reading of your character by a astrologer, did you supply him/her your true date, time and location of birth details? Or are you only judging based on telling your sun-sign. Then it wasn't YOU that he/she was explaining.

If you learned what it takes to make a astrological statement, how much of your '6th sense' did you really need? Or was it more of a matter of mixing symbolical meanings according to a structured system.

With that out of the way,...

I'm not happy with the last poll-option. I do not feel happy with considering myself being 'a believer'. I am rational and scientific enough to be inclined to say that I cannot explain how it works. Gravity doesn't make sense, or even other far weaker field theories known to physics. But hey, we didn't know what made that apple fall from the tree some 5 centuries ago either. So what do we know now! Assuming we now know everything about the universe is being ignorant.

My experience of the last (about) 25 years, where I gave it the benefit of doubt and not the ease of ridicule or ignorance, showed me that the positions of planets/sun/moon... even the positioning of the meridian and rising angle ... at the time of my birth can time and explain my life events with sometimes uncanny precision. In time as well as meaning. This being important life phases, yearly developments from exact sun return, and even timing of remarkable moments in daily experiences as both real planets/sun/moon and birth positions pass through the meridian and rising/setting angles. And I'm not even talking yet about the attractions/detractions felt between people showing in their planetary/sun/moon positions. The trouble with the latter is that for some people you often don't know their birth details to check.

Some will come with proof that astrology doesn't exist because it cannot be proven by science or statistical means. I absolutely agree that it cannot be proven. Unfortunately this seems to be the nature of the beast. Each one of us has a unique pattern of planetary/sun/moon positions, with an even more unique placement between the angles of the horizon. It is the combination or mix of these multitude of influences that form the unique ways in which we are all very different (even if born on the same day, or in same town), and how this results in the multitude of different experiences in our lives. It is hard to find statistical significance among this enormous amount of noise. I wish it was un-true, but astrology is vague by nature. It will never be a precise science.

Besides, that (scientific) approach is missing out on halve of our perception of reality, imho. It favours the objective perception and common experiences, yet it ignores the personal or subjective meaning. So thereby it destroys it's own evidence to the contrary. You can't neglect 'meaning'. If you do that, then you'll never get to that Holy Grail called a theory of Everything.

I consider Astrology to be a method of learning the weather report of life. What can I expect in the near future? Or what fell upon my head some years ago and made me weep from tears of anguish or joy? At least in the symbolical sense, not a precise specific concrete meaning. When it comes, you'll start to recognise it from the general meaning. As it not be a very clearly defined predictable event. It might also come as an internal experience, known only to you.

Mostly you won't know when exactly the next rain cloud drops on your head either, even with hundred of meteorological reports. (unless you have a personal weather radar... doubt it) And it might still vanish or appear out of thin air on occasion. So not very different from astrological predictions.

TL/DR: Less ridicule by the gut and show of ignorance. Learn, and take the time to make itself show it's validity. Not your own assumptions!

[Wolferz]

Why so serious?
We here at scoff at everything with equal abandon.

Personally, I trust my sixth sense more than I do astrology. It's never failed me unless I ignored it. Astrology not so much.
Opening your minds eye with psychedelics also aids in gaining a better awareness of the universe around us.