I was talking to my Dad the other day and he asked me how my Astrology was coming along. As I think was fully warranted, my friend and I proceeded to rant about how useless Astrology was that I was by no stretch of the imagination wasting my time studying something so frivolous and unjustified. Which got me thinking- wouldn’t my plethora of avid readers want to know just why astrology is such a bogus science (aka. why it’s not a science at all)?Firstly- the term pseudoscience refers to an activity that resembles science on the surface, but is backed up by none of the requirements for an actual science. Here are the requirements for a justifiable scientific study:
1. Consistency. If you say that when you drop this apple, it will fall, and it does, it’ll happen the next time you do it too. And the next, and the next, and the next…
2. Based on Evidence. I have 100 scientists who have calculated the velocity and precise moment that this apple will hit the ground, and behind them is evidence of the existence of gravity, and behind that is thousands of years of humanity backing up that existence with concrete examples etc…
3. Falsifiable. I cannot therefore say that, even if this apple doesn’t fall, that’s only because you don’t believe hard enough- therefore it’s your fault and either way I’m still right. Wrong.
4. Based on controlled experimentation. I didn’t see this apple fall on TV, I actually dropped this apple and heard the tell-tale thunk of it hitting the ground. So did my 100 scientists. And the bazillion measurement instruments…inside of a sealed room with no air flow.
5. Correctable. If for some reason my apple doesn’t fall, we can come up with a hundred new theories as to why that happened. I cannot therefore speculate that God willed it thus that one time, and therefore my theory still stands.
6. Not Parsimonious. In other words- there’s not some ridiculous explanation for why my apple falls, such as the existence of a bazillion invisible fairy elephants that like to sit on my apple and have the ability to propel objects downwards, thereby forcing it into the ground where it otherwise would have simply hung there. As if.
Although there’s a ton of other qualities of true science, and this is by no means a formal list of legitimized requirements for something to be science, it round about describes its basic qualities. And Astrology? I’d like to see one person debate why Astrology fits any one of these qualifications. Seriously. Next blog, I’ll discuss exactly why they don’t fit into these six categories, and introduce a magical theory called Occam Razor. Hopefully that’ll be fun!
-StarKid
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