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"Apache Runner" said


>The most amusing moment was when he described Ptolemy's method for
>figuring out how long someone lived.   It had to do with the
>ascension of the Sun the day after someone's birth.   I asked him if
>this was a tradition.   He said "No, I think Ptolemy just made it up."

Yes, it is thought clever these days to laugh at astrology - and
those who laugh loudest are those who know least about it.

The essential ideas of (Western) astrology were born 5000 years ago
in Babylon. Since then, they have undergone a continuous cycle of
refinement where the philosophical model created to describe
correlations between two sets of observed phenomenon (star/planet
positions and events here on earth) was tested by seeing if it could
predict future correlations. If the model was found wanting, it was
adjusted to account for the larger database of observed phenomenon.

If you think that sounds like the scientific principle, you would be
correct. Astrology is the oldest science and while astrology may not
have the proven validity of the hard sciences, it could be argued
that there is more proof for the validity of astrology than, say, the
main principles of economics or psychology.

Geoffrey Kolbe

   

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