H.Narasimhaiah
All of us know that according to astrology planets wield influence on human affairs. This widespread belief has been firmly implanted in the minds, of people all over the world for centuries. The primitive man’s beliefs were moulded, largely by the events of nature which instilled awe and fear in his mind. Lightning and thunder frightened him considerably. The eclipses which created darkness at noon have scared even the most courageous primitive man. Earth-quakes must have shaken him rudely. Dreams, diseases and death were all mysterious to him.
Ancient astrology had its origin in astronomy. But astronomy is a science. It is developing and evolutionary in nature. Everything is tentative in science. It is not dogmatic. All the theories and laws are revised in the light of new discoveries and investigations. If a subject has to get the status of science, it has to satisfy the well known conditions of objectivity repeatability, consistency, universality and so on. Naturally all the branches of science started with imperfection on account of limitation in knowledge and crude instruments available at that time. Sometimes wrong assumptions were also responsible for such imperfections. But the greatness and grandeur of science is its constant objective quest for truth irrespective of anything else.
Ancient astronomy was as defective as any other branch of science during its early period. The starry sky and the moon had always attracted the attention of man from the beginning. Persons with curiosity and a keen sense of observation have tried to probe further to know more about them. The eye was the only instrument to get information at that time. According to astrologers there are nine planets – Sun, Moon, Rahu, Kethu, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. But the Sun and the Moon are not Planets. Sun is a star and the Moon is a satellite. Besides, ‘Rahu’ and ‘Kethu’ are non-existent. They are the figments of their imagination. Thus, out of the nine planets which form the basis of astrology two are not planets and two do not exist at all. Besides, the astrologers have no clear concept of time and its measurement which play a very important part in astrology. All this gave astrology a very weak, faulty and shaky foundation. Any superstructure that is built on such wrong assumptions can never be considered as science by any stretch of imagination….
Methods of science are very powerful tools used in any investigation to know truth. Application of these methods will have devastating effects on everything that is unscientific. These methods can conveniently be used to find out the veracity or otherwise of astrology.
Rahu Kala, Gulika Kala and Yamaganda Kala have astrology as their basis. When ‘Rahu’ and ‘Ketu’ do not exist as planets Rahu Kala and Gulika Kala obviously have no meaning. For the time being we will assume their existence and proceed further. According to astrology during ‘Rahu Kala’ nothing auspicious should be initiated : no travel, of course no marriage, no religious function and nothing of that sort. If this belief is true then all the planes, trains, buses and other automobiles which start during Rahu Kala should meet with accidents. Even a cursory analysis of the phenomena of accidents irrelevant to the nature of travel. Accidents do not owe their origin to the departure timings. In fact at big international airports such as New York, Chicago, or London planes will be taking off and landing almost continuously. They cannot wait to avoid Rahu Kala. It is ridiculous to imagine that a train should wait for the green signal by an astrologer for its departure. Similarly some days are considered to be auspicious and others inauspicious according to astrology. It is not difficult to prove that no day is inauspicious and every day is innocuous….
It is common knowledge that generally no two astrologers agree with each other. It appears as though each has got his own astrology and yet astrology is claimed to be a science!…
Not only there will be conflicting claims by different astrologers but the same astrologer will be making haphazard predictions which are far out of the mark of reality. When all kinds of possible predictions are made by different astrologers it is inevitable that some predictions coincide with the actual happening. This does not prove the validity of astrology. Even a clock which is not working will show correct time twice a day! A monkey’s relentless pounding on the keys of a typewriter may result in the formation of a word or even a short couplet of Shakespeare! This does not mean that the monkey knows either the art of typing or has a knowledge of Shakespeare’s verse….
All the above examples show that astrology can be verified and disproved in the light of the day to day events. Still it is a matter of regret that many educated people and even scientists have blind faith in astrology. Man continues to be swayed by fear and hence is by irrational and authoritarian beliefs. A scientist or a student of science is quite rational in his approach to problems inside the laboratory. But it is shocking to find the same ‘rational’ man being hopelessly irrational in trying to solve the problems of life. It seems as though his thinking faculty has taken a holiday! Even though man has reached the moon more than once and returned triumphantly, still there are two theories for eclipses—one for teaching in the class and the other to practise at home! Even today the sun and moon have not yet escaped from the clutches of Rahu and Ketu. It is not uncommon for a professor to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution in the class and to accept an entirely unscientific theory in the church. For such persons science is more a means of livelihood than a way of life. Astrology is a superstition which like all other superstitions blunts the edge of dynamic thinking and damages self confidence. The pollution of the atmosphere due to astrology and other superstitions is much more dangerous than that due to familiar pollutants.
Astronomy being a science has made tremendous advances. But astrology continues to cling to the earlier primitive beliefs and wrong assumptions. Still the same old ‘nine planets’ (Navagrahas) of which four are not at all planets guide the course of astrology. But the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto for years, long after their discovery by astronomers, have been waiting at the doors of astrology for recognition. And most of the astrologers continue to be blissfully ignorant of their existence.
The above critical analysis made in the light of the evidence available conclusively establishes that astrology is totally unscientific.
Source: ‘Science, Nonscience and the Paranormal’ published by: The Bangalore Science Forum – 1987
