Why is Astrology called as Pseudo Science?

 

In the previous article, I explained how astrology can be used as a tool of psychology. But for a scientific mind, it is difficult to comprehend, how can a planet millions of kilometers away impact you. Even though there are some proofs out there, I will not go into the metaphysics part of it. 

 

Being a data scientist, working on data patterns and building models which work well with most of the data, I look at birth charts and behavior patterns in a similar way. Some sages from ages ago built a model called astrology which is being used by the current day astrologers. The day Data science, the sexiest job of the 21st century, is called a hoax, I will consider Astrology also to be a hoax.

 

How did Astrology get the name of Pseudo science?

 

I have combined my own doubts and commonly asked questions to explain why it has the reputation of being pseudo scientific.

 

1.Empirical science

 

It is not a mathematical formula that 1+1=2. It involves the process of data collection, observation and the results. For any mathematical model, when doing predictions, we are not aiming for a 100% accuracy, recall or precision for the fear of overfitting the data. Similarly, there are true positives (prediction is true and it occurred), true negatives (prediction didn’t occur), false positives (didn’t predict it but happened) and false negatives (predicted that it won’t occur and it didn’t occur) with the predictions in astrology. The confidence with each observation can also be predicted varies. Some observations are predicted with 100% confidence while a few others are predicted with 30% confidence.

 

In real life, most of the astrologers are fake and say the most common themes which can occur in any person’s life to lure them into expensive remedies. Then there are decent astrologers who don’t consider all the features or don’t mention the confidence level and other metrics of their prediction. Then there is the common man who doesn’t use common sense and wants/expects that whatever astrologer says is 100% true without thinking about practical application to his own life.

 

For example, in an astrology reading for a 25 year old, the astrologer mentions a chance of death if the astrologer doesn’t understand realistic application. But what the concept would have actually meant was transformation of self through death of certain parts of the self.

 

Hence it has a bad reputation.

 

2.Bookish knowledge vs Real life knowledge

 

Just like how machine learning models become outdated with time, whatever is written in classics won’t be applied in current life scenarios. For example, the food recommendation you receive on Swiggy might feel outdated to you when new restaurants have come up or you decided to become a vegan. 

Similarly, it is important for the current day astrologers to update their prediction models to the current life scenarios.

 

3.Same time, same place, different lives

 

“How can two people born at the same time at the same place / twins with the same birth chart have different experiences in life?”

 

Using the logic of Vedic astrology, even though the birth chart is the same based on the time, the difference in seconds creates a lot of differences.

 

According to Spiritual Astrology, even though two people have the same birth chart, the karma of their previous lives causes the differences in the intensity and nature of planetary impact in this life. 

 

Expanding the above concept using Desh Kaal Patra, even though the predictions might be the same, the results you see will differ based on the country, circumstances and family you are born into. Let’s say the chart says that you will have high quality education, for a child born into an uneducated family, completing education till graduation is high quality education whereas for a child born in a high class family, it could mean going for the best universities in the world.

 

4.Free will vs Destiny

 

“Is there no free will if the birth chart decides everything beforehand?”

 

When a soul decides to take birth on Earth, it chooses the karma it wants to fulfill in this life. This karma can be of 3 types – sanchita, prarabdha, agami. 

 

Sanchita karma is the sum total of all the karmas normalized over life times. It shows a general disposition of different characteristics of the soul. This can be changed by working on your natural disposition into a desired disposition. 

 

Prarabdha karma is the specific karma you want to fulfill in this lifetime. This is majorly seen through karmic planets like Saturn, Rahu and Ketu where you can do very little to change the course of life.

 

Agami is the karma which you are creating through your actions in this lifetime. That is why you must have been told by your elders that never take anything for free, take fruits or sweets when visiting someone’s house, else you are accumulating debt in this life.

 

5.No results from Remedies

 

A few others dismiss astrology because remedies didn’t work for them. As discussed in the karma section, some of the karma like prarabdha karma can’t be prevented or reduced through remedies unless there is divine intervention. 

 

For other types of karma, remedies could be  a slow process for changes to show.

 

Based on real life experience, the best remedy for any karma is to learn the life lesson instead of avoiding or escaping from it. This will make you strong to face it even if it shows up again.

 

6.Daily readings

 

“Why do online horoscope/zodiac readings don’t work for me?”

 

When astrologers write daily zodiac sign readings they write generalized readings. There is no way that the entire population will have only 12 different types of day. The impact of each day on you depends on your own chart, the placement of planets in different houses and zodiacs, aspects and degrees of each planet, your dasha and transits. Hence disregarding astrology by reading zodiac columns alone doesn’t make sense.

 

Despite all the above, if you don’t want to believe in astrology, it is your free will and also your karma that you believe only in hard work. That can also be deduced from your birth chart.

 

Happy discovering your truth!