What's in the stars?

February, 2007
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With nothing to cook at home, my flatmate and I decided to go out for dinner, and trade stories about our recent India trips. The discussion veered to marriage and then onto a pretty controversial topic: astrology.

My flatmate and I take nothing at face value, and question things that we deem logic-defying at first glance. Astrology is something I especially love to pick holes in. But more on that later. Given my flatmate's disposition to disparage all superstitions I was surprised to learn that he was not too too hard on astrology, and whetted my appetite for an interesting discussion.

Initially he started with a cynical view of astrology, refusing to call it a science. But then again, he accepts he's young and doesn't understand everything in the world. So he's been willing to be proven wrong about astrology as well, rather than dismiss it as nonsense outright. Secondly, his approach to astrology is quite different from other people. As he sees it, there are some extreme variants of attitudes: people like me, who do not follow astrology at all, and others who only follow astrology. According to him there exists a compromise, where astrology can be used as a guide when you have multiple equivalent options with no tie-breaker. The example he gave was, say someone wants to choose a business to invest money. The person has narrowed down the options to diamond trading and fabrics. But is unable to figure out which one to go for. Such a person in the end is anyway going to go with a "gut" or instinct-based choice if not other comparator is available. In such cases, [he said] astrology could be the final comparator.

So really speaking, my flatmate suggested, astrology could be used to minimize the potential of risks when possible when no other guidelines are present to show you the way.

My immediate reaction was, a person who doesn't know what way to go needs to keep digging further. The perceived equivalence of options is always the outcome of ignorance. Case in point - the person in the example above, who was ignorant of the internals both trades. If that person would have spoken to some experienced people, he/she would have certainly received more insight which would have led to a more informed decision rather than gut based choices.

My mistrust in astrology stems from the flimsy foundations it is based upon. The so-called "science" uses a person's birth-date and time of birth to extrapolate all future incidents in his/her life. To me, a person starts life at the moment of conception - in the mother's womb. No one knows that time. Then, the definition of "birth" according to astrology itself seems flawed to me.

What if a child were born via C-Section, prematurely, say by 1 month. What birth time would you use? Would you add 1 month to get the baby's "expected" birth time and use that for astrological calculations?

The next issue is more fundamental: of the measurement of time. Astrology demands birth time be recorded down to the minute. But time as measured by humans is prone to error. And I am talking of two sets of humans: the ones who prepare the astrological charts for celestial bodies, and the ones who actually record the time of birth for a baby. There is huge potential for errors in both measurements. Nothing in nature changes suddenly. All changes are gradual. So why does it matter what exact minute you were born? What if the exit of a baby from the mother's body was accelerated by medications? To me, a one-year time resolution would have sounded more logical for astrological calculations, given that a baby already spends the first nine months of its life in the mother's body. But that's not the case.. and hence, my continued opposition to the use of astrology.

Lives and dreams are made and shattered each day by these innumerable gas giants, twinkling back innocently at us. If only they knew.. but how can they.. born from nothing and blazing away to nothingness, they don't know their own fate.

Update: October, 2014
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Recently, I came across a point of view that if the Moon can cause tides, it can very well affect the human mind. Other celestial bodies may have a similar effect.
My thoughts on this:

• Yes, the moon exerts a gravitational force on me and everyone else. However, that force does not depend on my Date and Time and Place of birth. The gravitational force is Equally exerted on everyone (and every object of matter) in my vicinity regardless of their birth situation. Gravity does not have precision-pointing. 
• The brain works on glucose, electrical signals, hormones and chemical reactions - i.e. bio-chemistry. Gravity does not play a part. Otherwise, the astronauts who orbit earth or have landed on the moon in the past would be demented as soon as they ascended in their rocket. 
• Humans being a highly evolved species, have brains and DNA which have adapted to handle gravity, atmospheric pressure and such environmental factors.