astrology

(from 2010)

Astrology is the study of the way seasonal changes in environmental factors effect developmental physiology, psychology, etc.  These trends in personalities were unconsciously documented over time, and astronomical events were used as points of reference to times within the calendar year.  What else would you expect from people who knew nothing about melatonin or the biology of an embryo?  They weren't stupid, they weren't insane, they didn't set out to tell lies.  They just noticed trends in personalities correlating to the regular rhythm of the calendar year and documented it, adding their own idea of an explanation.  Astrology is true in this sense- it's explanation is faulty (again, what would you expect?) but the information it encodes is perfectly reasonable and seems to have some basis in reality.  Does this mean that there aren't people who exploit this as a way to tell people what their future is going to be like?  Of course not.  People will exploit anything, that has little to do with the validity of astrology's predictions.

It's prefectly reasonable to think that a child who spends the first 3 months of its life during the reduced light levels of winter is going to have different production ratios of melatonin, seratonin, etc than a child born in spring.  Pregnant women in the summer may eat more fruit than those in winter, which would have some trend effect in offspring.  These influences are so vast and so subtle that it would be impossible to catalog them and their effects.  Astrology doesn't do this, it just notices general patterns in the outcomes over generations.  It lacks any knowledge of the process and just gives the data.