It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I find astrology to be very silly and annoying, so much so that back at the beginning of 2003 when I discovered that the BBC was hosting an online community for astrology enthusiasts within the context of a broader feel-good site called 360, I felt obliged to wade on in and question their validity. What really galled me about it was that is was that 360 was a spin off from another community project known as h2g2, a site inspired (and cofounded) by the late Douglas Adams. For those who don’t know, Adams was an atheist and huge fan (and friend) of Richard Dawkins– In fact I believe that it was Adams who introduced Dawkins to his now wife Lalla Ward (Romana #2 from Doctor Who). What I’m basically getting at is that he didn’t suffer fools gladly and held little regard for the supernatural.
What follows below the fold is the full transcript of my ensuing discussion with at least one bona fide astrologer. I saved a copy of this conversation for posterity, since it represents a collection of the most thoughtful arguments I have taken the time to make against what I and many others would describe as classic psuedo-science. Since it was so long ago (and the original site no longer exists) I don’t feel too bad about republishing it here.
My initial comment is given as a response to the topic introduction: Astrology – Try it for Yourself. Unfortunately I no longer have the content of this intro, but it was basically a blurb about how positive and useful astrology can be in our lives. Some choice quotes appear below. On only a few occasions does the conversation become petty, and by and large I feel that I conducted myself in a reasonable fashion– ok, I do get quite snarky towards the end, but I can’t help it because it’s insane that people can take something like astrology seriously… oh just read on and it will be pretty clear what I think…