Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Drawing Parallels

We are so advanced in comparison to our co-inhabitors on this planet. We are the six-sensed human beings. And how do we have foresight and hindsight as we so call it. By a beautiful thing we do, called pattern matching. We love to pattern match and derive/ extrapolate from these matching patterns. Hence we predict anything from weather and catastrophes.

I recently watched heart in mouth this series on Nat Geo called Six Degrees. National Geography does have its way of keeping us in constant fear of the perils we are bound to face in the future! And they do this by extrapolation. All statements start with "With the rate at which the ice is melting...", "With the rate at which the global warming happens ..." and so on.

But that is science for you and we all accept it, as it seems very rational to us ,this analysis.

Now I ask you, what do you think of astrology? Astrology is the art of studying the position of the celestial bodies at the time of one's birth. Further with the movement of these celestial bodies and the patterns they take, the person's fate is predicted.

This to me seems to be pattern matching again. How did the astrologers know that certain celestial patterns/ movements characterize certain behavioral patterns/ events in the person. Because over the years they have pattern matched and extrapolate these learnings to come up with a science called Astrology.

So why do we believe one when we reject another?

7 comments:

Fantasies of a Lifetime said...

True , I guess its the fear of the future that makes us not want to believe in astrology, its much more easier to live our lives not knowing what's gonna happen tomorrow. . .

Preethi said...

you got here ?? :) lol... this is still a draft.. apparently I haven't put it right :P

aMus said...

I had put up my comment here and now i realise its not there..

congrats on a new blog...seems promising...

why do we believe one? because its generally supported with data and real consequences...

astrology is linked to the strength of your belief...

rayshma said...

i like this one too :) nantu chose the template again...? coz i love it ;)

i believe both - as long as they can be classified as a science. which means, there are facts and a certain logic that is applied and can be proven.

Preethi said...

Suma - But astrology is a science too.. right?
Rayshma - Oh yes Nantu's choice of course!! :)

Subhashree said...

nice blog you've got here. keep more interesting posts going and often too :)

Savani said...

bacause astrology is associative, not causal? I read horos. And that is the only explanation I can come up with. I am sorry to be putting links to my posts here.. but I think you will enjoy this one-
http://thekarmacallingblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/twinkle-twinkle-little-star.html