[DoctorMichael]

So there.

[quark]

No doubt [UK] Government money funded this B.S.

[TheBigB]

I don't believe in astrology. We Scorpios are skeptical.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Does this negate the fact that everyone born September 31 in Kansas City was run over by a bread truck this morning?

[camle]

your tax dollars at work (if yer in the UK).

as for me the comment about descriditing astrology was a hoot! It's like making a fish wet.

[San Jacinto]

The study was flawed.

Everyone knows that you have to take into accouint the number of letters in your mother's maiden name when you make the astrological charts. I am sure this "oversight" was fully intentional.

[SengirV]

Astrology is suck a bunch of garbage. Astrologers claim that they are sooooo knowledgeable about the "heavens". Yet they are using the "original" star signs from 2000+ years ago. Too bad that because of local(Earth) reasons the stars in the sky are not in the same position they were 2000 years ago. I'm not talking about stars moving in the sky, but what is "up" in the sky at a given time.

I was born on Jully 22nd. According to the ohhh soooo knowledgeable astrologers, I would be a cancer because that is "The sign" at that time. But in REALITY(something astrologers know very little) cancer is about 6 months away from actually being "the sign" as defined 2000+ years ago. They just go by what is written a book. They wouldn't be able to name a star to save their lives. You should spend your money on lottery tickets, you have a better chance of being correct.

[DonQ]

It's amazing that serious money and time was spent to debunk, for the millionth time, astrology. Except that, to this day, thousands of otherwise sentient people in North America and the British Isles still believe in astrology - at least enough to check their horoscopes on a regular basis.

A professional astronomer assures me that, to a newborn baby, the gravitational influence of the bodies of the mother, the doctor, the nurse or midwife, etc., are several times greater than the gravitational influence of the moon, much less any or all of the other 8 planets.

[MalcolmS]

I've known this for years. My dad was born on the same day as Elvis. He never liked peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches, has never been to Vegas, never did drugs, wasn't a rock and roll icon and strangely, for some reason, is still alive.

[theFIRMbss]

> Astrologers have for centuries claimed to be able to extract deep insights into the personality and destiny of people

I'm sure we'll see soon
an academic study
debunking feng shui...

(Of course, we will not --
it's safe to pan star sign stuff,
that's Western tin foil...)

[muir_redwoods]

You mean, there's no absolute truth behind 3000 year-old Summerian agronomy? Next you're going to try to tell me that I've been wasting my time trying to turn #12 lead shot into gold dust.

[wideminded]

"Belief in astrology is the infallible sign of ignorance." - Voltaire

[b9]

Thank You for this post!
Astrology's no game - a wise soul told me years ago not to state my birthday whenever possible.
I went to pick up some freelance illustration work once and the art director casually asked what 'sign' I was. I just laughed and said, "I'm signless." She wouldn't give it up, certain that I must be either 'this' sign or 'that' sign for being so stubborn. She actually wouldn't give me the work, claiming she had to know if I was a compatible sign.
Not easy being a conservative in the art field ... especially in San Francisco at that time!

[Quix]

As best as I can recall,

EVERY

well designed, independent study of astrology has similarly shown

ABSOLUTELY ****NO**** CORRELATION between

ANY

human variable and what astrology claims should be there based on that variable.

It has not mattered if the study dealt with a few famous astrologers or a dozen of them.

NO CORRELATION. ABSOLUTELY NONE.

[Billthedrill]

Analysis of the research was carried out by Geoffrey Dean, a scientist and former astrologer based in Perth, Australia, and Ivan Kelly, a psychologist at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

A Virgo and a Sagittarius. What do you expect they'd say?

[MEGoody]

These 'scientists' spent SEVERAL DECADES on this? Sheesh. I could have told them this and saved them all the trouble.

[MainFrame65]

FIRST OF ALL, I am in no way a believer in this stuff, so don't take any of this as a defense of the pseudoscience involved. But I have some exposure to it from decades ago, when my Mother used to do horoscopes as a social activity.

Although your own birthday and time, along with the specific astronomical situation at the time, are the largest component of your horoscope, it also considers the horoscopes of your parents and other family, which this "study" omits entirely. This is a common problem for skeptics - they redefine the arguments to fit their preconceptions, and then come up with answers that fit their new definitions. I think the debunkers conclusion is correct, but I have no faith at all in their methods

My Mother was a bookkeeper when she worked, and enjoyed working with numbers. Her horoscopes were done entirely by hand, using log and trig tables for the calculations, and she did horoscopes for all of the many cousins, nephews, nieces of our extended family. She wrote them up in a presentation style and gave them as gifts.

[RightWhale]

Sure, debunkers abound, but the daily horoscope in the local paper is dead on every time. Never fails. Funny how it always works for me but seems so 'off' for other Sagittarians. We have used fung schwey in the office, and that works, too. Excuse me, it's time to lay out the Tarot cards again.

[dday76]

So what is astrology supposed to do again... convince you that no matter what you do, your life is already planned out for you? That's great. I hope it is right...--sarcasm

Only people too stupid to take control of their own lives put any stock in this sort of scam anyway.

That's the fallacy debunkers sometimes fall into. Because they deduce by reason they think everyone does. You can write novels, but if people don't read, you won't get your point across.