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Mechanisms
[edit]In 1975, amid increasing popular interest in astrology, a widely publicized article, "Objections to Astrology," published in The Humanist in the form of a manifesto signed by 186 scientists, sparked a controversy over astrological mechanisms. The article stated:
"We can see how infinitesimally small are the gravitational and other effects produced by the distant planets and the far more distant stars. It is simply a mistake to imagine that the forces exerted by stars and planets at the moment of birth can in any way shape our futures."[1][2]
Astronomer Carl Sagan, host of the award-winning TV series Cosmos, said that he found himself unable sign the "Objections" statement, not because he thought that astrology was valid, but because he found the statement's tone authoritarian, and because objections on the grounds of an unavailable mechanism can be mistaken. "No mechanism was known," Sagan wrote, "for continental drift (now subsumed in plate tectonics) when it was proposed by Alfred Wegener... The notion was roundly dismissed by all the great geophysicists, who were certain that continents were fixed." Sagan stated that he would instead have been willing to sign a statement describing and refuting the principal tenets of astrological belief, which he believed would have been more persuasive and would have produced less controversy.[3][4]
Few modern astrologers believe that astrology can be explained by any direct causal mechanisms in the classical sense between planets and people.[5] Researchers have posited acausal, purely correlational, relationships between astrological observations and events. For example, the theory of synchronicity proposed by Carl Jung, which draws from the ancient Hermetic principle of 'as above, so below,' postulates meaningful significance in unrelated events that occur simultaneously.[6][7] Some astrologers have posited a basis in divination.[8] Others have argued that empirical correlations stand on their own, and do not need the support of any theory or mechanism.[9] A few researchers, such as astronomer Percy Seymour, have sought to describe a mechanism that could potentially explain astrology.[10][11]
- ^ "Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists". The Humanist, September/October 1975. Archived from the original on 2009-03-18.
- ^ Bok, Bart J. (1982). "Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists". In Patrick Grim (ed.). Philosophy of Science and the Occult. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 14–18. ISBN 0873955722.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Sagan, Carl. "Letter." The Humanist 36 (1976): 2
- ^ Sagan, Carl. The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996), pp. 302-303.
- ^ G. Phillipson, Astrology in the Year Zero. Flare Publications (London, 2000) ISBN 0-9530261-9-1
- ^ Jung, C.G., (1952), Synchronicity - An Acausal Connecting Principle (London: RKP English edition, 1972), p.36. "synchronicity ...(is)...a coincidence in time of two or more casually unrelated events which have the same or similar meaning, in contrast to 'synchronism', which simply means the simultaneous occurence of two events".
- ^ Maggie Hyde, Jung and Astrology; p.24–26; 121ff. (London: The Aquarian Press, 1992). "As above, so below. Early in his studies, Jung came across the ancient macrocosm-microcosm belief with its enduring theme of the organic unity of all things"; p.121.
- ^ Geoffrey Cornelius, The Moment of Astrology. Utsav Arora, another meditation research specialist and astrologer, argues, "if 100% accuracy were to be the benchmark, we should be closing down and shutting all hospitals, medical labs. Scientific medical equipment and drugs have a long history of errors and miscalculations. Same is the case with computers and electronic. We don't refute electronic gadgets and equipment just because it fails but we work towards finding cures for the errors." The Wessex Astrologer (Bournemouth, 2003.)
- ^ M. Harding. "Prejudice in Astrological Research". Correlation, Vol 19(1).
- ^ Dr. P. Seymour, Astrology: The Evidence of Science. Penguin Group (London, 1988) ISBN 0-14-019226-3
- ^ Frank McGillion. "The Pineal Gland and the Ancient Art of Iatromathematica".