Class 1
What is Astrology?
Today we will:
1. Define what astrology is
2. Answer the question "Is
astrology a science?"
WHAT IS ASTROLOGY?
Astrology is the study of correlations
of celestial events with behavior on earth, particularly correlations
which cannot be explained by gravitation, magnetism, or other
forces that are well-established in physics or other sciences. A "celestial event" is
any event in the sky. For example, the Sun rising is a celestial
event, or any two planets appearing in the same place in the
sky is a celestial event. The celestial event can involve any
celestial body, whether it be the Sun, Moon, a planet, an asteroid,
comet, star, black hole, quasar, or other celestial object.
The celestial event may also not involve any physical body at
all,
such as when, for example, the Moon's North Node (as we shall
find out later, the Moon's North Node is not a physical object)
is on the eastern horizon. The eastern horizon is, of course,
simply where the sky meets the horizon of the earth in the
easterly direction, and therefore is also not a physical body
like a planet
or star. Some people mention that the Moon's
position affects the tides of the ocean, as an example of an
astrological influence, but the correlation of ocean tides with
the Moon's position can be explained by gravitation so it is
not really astrological in that the rules used by astrologers
generally cannot be explained by gravitation or other forces
known in the sciences. Astrology has been used by virtually
every advanced civilization for thousands of years, but it has
almost always been very controversial as well. Today, skepticism
about astrology is as strong as ever, and there are many good
reasons for this. Astrology has its roots in ancient times when
less scientific methods were employed and superstition was rampant
in many of these civilizations. The only exposure that many people
have had to astrology is the sun sign columns in the newspaper
or a glamorous psychic astrologer on television. Thus, it is
hardly surprising that astrology is generally not accepted as
a legitimate and valid field of inquiry by academia. Resistance
to astrology in academia is strong. The Kepler program and other
fine work being done in the field of astrology today will hopefully
open the eyes of many people to a valuable tool that is being
overlooked. Some people confuse astrology with astronomy.
Astronomy is the science that studies celestial phenomena physically.
All objects in the sky are studied in terms of their constitution,
position, history, etc. Astronomy, of course, is a science and
no one disputes its validity. Astrology goes a step beyond astronomy
by making correlations of celestial phenomena with events on
earth, and these correlations are not of a nature that can be
easily explained by traditional scientific concepts. Astrology
is highly controversial, and currently (as of 1998; this may
change in the near future) an accredited college degree is not
available in astrology, which exemplifies the fact that astrology
is currently not well-received in most academic circles. Note that no one has proven how astrology
works. There are many different views on how or why astrology
might work, but there is not single conclusive answer that has
been demonstrated to the satisfaction of all astrologers. Astrology
is the study of the correlation between celestial phenomena and
behavior on earth but why should this correlation exist? There
are many possible answers and I will not go into those now. Note
that the lack of a clear explanation of why the correlation should
exist, or the fact that the existence of such a correlation seems
absurd to many scientists and non-scientists alike, does not
in itself make astrology unscientific. Scientists can analyze
correlations and perfect their ability to predict based on these
correlations without knowing why the correlation exists. Experts
in scientific methodology emphasize that science ultimately is
about making observations and theories help us understand the
observations. The ability to predict that an apple will fall
to the ground if dropped is a scientifically verifiable statement
and it does not require the theory of gravitation to make it
more scientific. However, the theory of gravitation allows us
to understand not only why the apple falls to the ground, but
also a myriad other phenomena such as why planets revolve around
the Sun and the Moon revolves around the Earth. The power of
a scientific theory is that it expands our ability to make predictions
about other phenomena, but the lack of good theories does not
make a replicable experiment less scientific. IS ASTROLOGY A SCIENCE? Much
of astrology sounds like superstition. For example, most astrologers
believe that Mars is a planet of
aggression and if you were born when Mars was rising, setting,
or over your head ("culminating" is the more technical
astronomical term for "over your head") when you
were born, then you have the characteristics of Mars: aggressive
and
ambitious. In addition to sounding superstitious, there is
no way to explain such an influence. Does this mean that astrology
is not a science? The answer to this question is hotly
debated. Even some astrologers prefer to look at astrology as
a cosmic art rather than a mundane science. Interestingly,
the scientific method, contrary to popular opinion and even the
opinion of some self-proclaimed
scientists, has nothing to do with "common sense".
Science is founded on the scientific method, and the scientific
method requires only that rigorous procedures be employed to
verify that the observed phenomenon is "real", not
an artifact of other influences ("extraneous variables" is
the term used by scientists). Much of modern physics, in fact,
does not make "common sense". The discoveries of Albert
Einstein and other 20th century scientists have destroyed the "common
sense" science that developed through the 18th and 19th
centuries. Modern physics postulates a vast number of concepts
which sound absurd to common sense, but they are indisputably
scientific because they are congruent with observations made
using the rigorous procedure of the scientific method. Therefore, the fact that astrology
does not make common sense or cannot be explained by known physical
laws does not disqualify it as a science. What would disqualify
astrology as a science would be repeated failure to validate
any of its precepts in scientific studies. But scientific studies
by John Addey, John Nelson, Ann Parker, Theodore Landscheidt,
Mark Urban-Lurain, the Gauquelins, and many others have already
validated some astrological influences. These studies cannot
be officially declared to be scientific proof, however, because
a study must first meet the criteria required by the scientific
method: peer review and replication of the results are required
before being considered to be scientific validation. A study
must be published in a recognized scientific journal to ensure
that the study has been conducted properly. Also, a well-designed
study typically requires huge amounts of time and money to fund.
Astrology today is caught in a chicken-and-egg dilemma: Because
the funding and support is not available, the studies have not
been validated and published in major scientific journals. However,
some of the studies are very impressive. The following is a list
of books that contain very impressive research in astrology: Astrology and Alcoholism,
by Ann E. Parker Cosmic Cybernetics,
by Theodor Landscheidt Astrology As Science, a Statistical
Approach, by Mark Urban-Lurain The book Recent Advances in
Natal Astrology by Geoffrey Dean has an extensive
summary of a great deal of research done in astrology. Dean's
conclusion is that almost all of the research was not done
with sufficient scientific rigor to be completely conclusive. As part of your studies in Avalon
College, we do NOT expect you to read the books listed above!
In the advanced lessons we will discuss some of the material
in these books in more detail. We are mentioning these books
at this time simply to document the basis for the statements
made above. Because astrology is the study of
the correlation of celestial phenomena with behavior on earth
and both the astronomical phenomena and the behavior on earth
can be measured very precisely and clearly, astrology is very
amenable to scientific research. For example, a researcher can
study the correlation of planetary positions with well-defined
behavior or characteristics such as accidents, alcoholism, or
medical problems such as diabetes, heart problems, etc. There
are some very significant technical challenges that arise in
conducting astrological research, such as how to establish control
groups in the experiment. I will not discuss these subtle and
technical issues of research in any detail now but suffice it
to say that in some countries during some periods of time more
babies are born just before sunrise, and more babies are born
in the spring than at other times of the year. Because people
are not born randomly throughout the year or throughout the day,
and planets do not move at steady speeds from the earth's point
of view, the researcher must be very careful to make sure that
the control group of the experiment or the assumption about how
often the celestial event would occur by chance is correct. While
these challenges to astrological research are not insignificant,
they do require great care on the part of the researcher. Another
issue to consider is this: although scientific research can be
done in astrology, some astrologers, like Glenn Perry, for example,
believe that research in astrology needs to be more complex or
qualitative in nature than most traditional research studies.
According to this view, astrology works in a very wholistic and
complex manner, and simple research studies are too fragmented
and limited to produce results of any great importance. Many
astrologers also believe that astrology does not work by cause-and-effect
influences but rather by a non-mechanical means. Some astrologers
would also argue that astrology's purpose is to reveal meaning
and significance to our lives, not to describe phenomena. According
to this view a human being is more than a conglomerate of mechanical
processes, and astrology can feed the soul of a person, and from
this perspective, whether astrology can be validated scientifically
is irrelevant and unimportant. Some astrologers view astrology
more as a language rather than as a science. As you can see there
are many varying viewpoints on astrology's relationship to science! To
answer the question "Is astrology
a science?", the answer that I would give (although as explained
in the previous paragraph, not everyone would agree) is "almost" or "not
yet". Sometimes a discovery in science is made in a single "Eureka" moment,
but other times the data slowly and gradually supports the
theory until at last a clear and definitive discovery is made.
The studies
in the books listed above, and in other books, are extremely
promising, but by strict scientific standards probably cannot
be considered yet to be validation of astrology. FINAL CONCLUSION: Opinions
about whether astrology is a science vary, even among experts
in scientific
methodology
as well as experts in astrology. I think that to answer this
question, we must first carefully define what astrology is and
what a science is. Astrology is a correlation of celestial events
with behavior and characteristics of things on earth, especially
those that cannot be explained by current scientific theories.
A science is a field that has been validated by experiments and
research that adhere to the tenets of the scientific method,
and have been published in qualified journals. Publication is
important because this ensures that the research was conducted
correctly, with appropriate experimental controls, statistical
analysis, etc. Since astrology has been virtually ignored by
accepted scientific journals, it is my opinion that astrology
does not qualify as a science currently, but when such research
is done, it will, in time, produce statistically significant
results and then astrology will be a science. It may seem odd
that something can not be a science one day and then the next
day it is, but science is not only an objective phenomenon, it
is also the inquiry of human beings into an area, adhering rigorously
to the scientific method. Many astrologers believe that astrology
will one day join the ranks of the other sciences because the
work of researchers mentioned above and other researchers are
very impressive and only need to be replicated and expanded upon
in rigorous (and therefore usually expensive!) scientific studies.
Some astrologers, believe that astrology requires more emphasis
on qualitative techniques and more complex forms of analysis
rather than simple statistical quantitative analyses. According
to this view, astrology can advance as a science but it will
require a radically different kind of scientific approach than
is traditionally taken in order to make great strides, and also
that "soft science" techniques are not necessarily
inferior, and in fact can sometimes produce more useful results
than "hard science" techniques.
|