To understand the absurdity of horoscopes, it is enough to imagine that humanity has conquered space and colonized other planets
42% of Russians believe that by the sign of the zodiac it is possible to form a reliable idea of a person's character, 17% try to follow the recommendations of astrologers, although we live in the 21st century and it is reliably known that none of the astrological forecasts and none of the horoscopes are based on accurate calculations the position of the celestial bodies is no different from a completely random prediction.
To convince several tens of millions of people in Russia, and the devil knows how many beyond its borders, science failed. Even religion, which has consistently opposed astrology for centuries, could do nothing about it. However, the ability of one superstition to defeat another has always raised my doubts. And, nevertheless, in the foreseeable future, the absurdity of astrology will become obvious to everyone.
Suppose, after some time (10-20-50-100 years) Elon Musk or his followers will manage to build a colony on Mars and the first children will be born there. Ask your friends astrologers the simplest question: who will they be according to the sign of the zodiac?
The constellations from Earth and Mars are the same, but the Martian year lasts 687 days and does not even closely coincide with the Earth one. And if from the point of view of an earthly observer at some moment the Sun will be in the constellation of Sagittarius, then from Mars at the same moment it can get anywhere - maybe in the sector of the ecliptic corresponding to Capricorn, but at the same time - in the constellation Ursa Major … So who will the child be? Sagittarius, Capricorn, Big Bear or Aries in general - is this sign ruled by Mars?
How will the aspects (relative position) of the planets be taken into account and interpreted when drawing up a horoscope? About Earth, as usual? Then what does that have to do with the natives of Mars? And if relative to Mars, then what in these constructions will the Earth mean? And what to do with the Moon, which is not even visible from Mars with the naked eye?
As you can see, there are more questions than answers, and we have not even gotten out of the solar system yet. Let's imagine that this also happened and we flew to the nearest potentially habitable exoplanet - Proxima Centauri b.
What to do with the natives of this planet, because even the pattern of the constellations there will not look like the earthly one? And the planets in the system are completely different, if they exist at all. You will have to come up with new signs of the Zodiac and their new interpretation, or again return to earth signs.
Promotional video:
In addition, a year on Proxima b lasts only 11.2 Earth days, that is, each of the 12 signs of the Zodiac has less than an Earth hour. How to prepare horoscopes for them - for every hour or for a year? Better, of course, immediately for 2.5 years, because people on Proxima will still live in a rhythm familiar from Earth.
If, nevertheless, the earth signs of the Zodiac are used, the following question arises: by what time should they be assigned - when the Earth occupies the appropriate position relative to the Sun or when this event can really be observed from Proxima. The difference between these two moments is 4.22 years until the light gets from Earth to Proxima b.
And it is not entirely clear how the arrangement of stars and planets relative to the Earth (an arbitrary point on the outskirts of the galaxy) should influence the fate of the natives of Proxima b. That is, you still need to develop a new astrological system for each new star and even planet.
Now let's imagine that humanity will eventually populate at least 1% of our galaxy, that is, from 1 to 4 billion star systems. This means that the astrologers of the future will have to come up with several billion new astrologies - a huge task, to put it mildly. How many new Ptolemies and Tetrabiblos will be required to implement it?
What happens if a native of one planet moves to another for work or some other personal circumstance? What astrological forecast for the day / week to give him? According to the local star system? But it will not have his mark. According to his native system? But it will not take into account local luminaries.
To solve this problem, it is possible to create in each of the star systems a separate forecast for all the other four billion. Then the total number of horoscopes will be 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 (sixteen quintillions).
And the cherry on the cake: what to do with people who will be born in outer space during long interplanetary or interstellar flights? Calculate the position of the ship at this moment and draw up a horoscope for an arbitrary point in the universe?
The truly cosmic complexity of "interstellar astrology" requiring colossal resources, a huge number of arbitrary assumptions and the absence of the most important thing - the sacred halo of "ancient knowledge" for new conditions and human habitats - will gradually finish off this pseudoscientific teaching without any additional efforts.
True, fools do not diminish over time, and no matter how far science has gone, there will always be those who prefer superstition to it. The only question is what form they will take this time.
Vadim Zhartun