Is there any scientific truth in astrology?

Astronomy is science and astrology is pseudoscience. Today, this is a very clear thing. Strangely, however, there are still tens of millions of people in Qian Qian who are interested in astrology on this earth that has initially possessed the ability of space navigation. I worked in Shanghai Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences 15 years and studied the history of astronomy for a long time. Over the years, I can't remember how many times people around me-including outstanding people who have received the most orthodox and rigorous training in modern mathematical science-asked me: Is what you said about astrology reasonable?

In a sense, this is also a kind of "popularity". There must be some psychological factor or something regular behind this problem.

Yes, even, in addition to traditional astrology, such as making decisions for national affairs in ancient times, or predicting one's future luck, "constellation culture" has recently become extremely popular in China, among middle school students and even among quite a few college students (especially college girls in liberal arts). Many related magazines and books on the market are related to this aspect, and they are quite popular, so there are more materials on the Internet. There must be some truth behind this, although it may not be scientific or astronomical. As an astronomical historian, what do you think of these phenomena?

My view on this issue is conservative. I think it comes down to the ancient desire of human beings to "predict the future". No matter how strict scientific training is, I am afraid it is difficult to be completely indifferent to the temptation of "predicting the future." Although some people have done further thinking, the conclusion is that if human beings really gain the ability to predict the future, life will become a nightmare. But in fact, human beings have not yet acquired the ability to predict the future, so this desire can still tempt us.

On the other hand, astrology is not the only method that claims to be able to "predict the future". Why is astrology so popular? Then we should consider cultural factors. Things like the relationship between the constellation and fate are essentially the same as the eight-character fortune-telling in ancient China, except that the constellation theory comes from the west and is associated with many myths. With exquisite artistic images, it looks foreign and beautiful, and some publications add fuel to the fire. In contrast, eight-character fortune-telling lacks the assistance of myth and art, and has long been branded as "superstition", which is both vulgar and inferior. As a result, many young women like to talk about constellations on various occasions, thinking that they will appear quite "cultured", but in fact they just show their childishness, which is really sympathetic.

From the standpoint of scientific rationality, what you said is of course reasonable. However, the phenomenon of "constellation culture" mentioned here may not be completely explained or solved by scientific and rational reasons. Because people, as human beings, can meet all the needs in life not only by reason. Emotional needs also make sense. And "constellation culture" may just meet people's psychological and emotional needs, as some people say, it is the gentlest side to appease the soul. Faced with this demand, scientific rationality and rational analysis will appear stiff and powerless. As for why female college students are particularly keen on this, perhaps we can get some explanations from the gender characteristics of social construction. Besides, you put the word "culture" in quotation marks. In fact, you just limit culture to a scientific and reasonable range, and think that people who meet those requirements are literate. However, from another point of view, culture should not be, or should be diverse and colorful, is there any part suitable for emotional needs?

I agree that there is no difficulty in this. In fact, both in China and in the West, astrologers and fortune tellers have long occupied the position of reassuring people. Now that there are professional psychologists, the first two have not completely released this position.

As for me, putting a quotation mark on culture, of course, refers to culture in a narrow sense. Otherwise, fools have a fool's culture, and illiterates have an illiterate culture. Will those girls be willing to accept such a broad explanation on that occasion? On that occasion (for example, in front of TV cameras), they originally wanted to appear narrow-minded.

■ Then let's talk about cultural issues. In fact, your judgment may be unfounded, and you can make different analysis and explanations from a deeper level. First of all, culture, especially the culture embodied in public places, is often distorted and manifested by many social pressures. For example, a girl may be more willing to reproduce your scientific rational culture when she is interviewed for the postgraduate entrance examination of the history of science at Shanghai Jiaotong University. But deep down, perhaps, many girls you mentioned will be more inclined to the culture related to constellations, regard it as a confrontation with the scientific and rational culture that they don't really like, or at least think that they can't fully meet their psychological needs. Moreover, when many people who agree with the constellation culture get together, this constellation culture becomes a standard for them to agree with each other, and they will not be ashamed to show their love for this unscientific and irrational culture, and even think that not knowing this culture is a kind of "uncultured" performance. In fact, many people who are keen to talk about constellation problems do not necessarily follow the constellation prediction completely, but only add a dimension of thinking to many factors that affect their decision-making, and take this enthusiasm as the standard for identifying "fellow travelers". This is also an obvious manifestation of the generation gap phenomenon. Aren't these phenomena worthy of cultural researchers in astrology to explore the reasons and rationality of their existence? This discussion, in essence, goes beyond the narrow sense of astrology.

Pseudoscience does have many functions, including the function of identifying peers you mentioned. But I think the problem here is that many people don't know the difference between "constellation culture" and scientific rational culture. This is a question of universal significance, which is actually the difference between science and pseudoscience.

Scientists certainly don't want to see astrology spread everywhere. For example, in 1975, Bok, Jerome and Courths drafted a statement attacking astrology, and 192 famous scientists, including19 Nobel Prize winners, signed the statement. The statement puts forward three reasons why astrology is pseudoscience: first, it used to be witchcraft; Second, the lack of physical foundation; Third, people think it's just for comfort. However, there are also philosophers of science who stand up to defend astrology-these things should be familiar to you.

In this higher-level debate, both sides are actually very clear about what astrology is, what it can and cannot do. Philosophers of science who defend astrology don't really rely on astrology to guide their actions. But when it comes to the public, it may have a negative impact, misleading and hallucinating, which makes people feel that astrology may be "somewhat reasonable" in the general sense.

Speaking of pseudoscience, I think there are some subtle differences between general astrology and the "constellation culture" we talked about before. On the premise of admitting that pseudoscience also has some functions that human beings need, I agree to oppose astrology as pseudoscience. But many fans of the above-mentioned "constellation culture" don't regard it as something like science. A prominent feature of standard pseudoscience is to advocate things that are obviously not scientific under the banner of science. Although "constellation culture" is closely related to astrology, many fans now regard it more as entertainment and spiritual comfort than as a strict prediction of fate and future. The feeling of "a little truth" is not necessarily the same as his or her feeling of scientific truth. Therefore, we need not panic about this. It may not be a very dangerous thing to supplement some functions that science does not have. Just as science cannot replace religion in history and reality, astronomy may not be able to replace "constellation culture", which could have been two things coexisting (of course, there are some conflicts). Of course, it is also commendable for scientists to publicize science and oppose pseudoscience. However, it is not easy to popularize scientific and rational culture among the public. This will be an arduous and long process. If we act too hastily, treating this as an entertainment "constellation culture" from the beginning may lead to more conflicts that are counterproductive. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to focus on the analysis and exposure of pseudoscience that directly harms people and seriously harms society, give up "constellation culture" and study it from psychological, social and cultural aspects.

Seeing that you are so kind to plead for the "constellation culture", those MM really want to thank you! However, I never advocate "constellation culture" as the starting point-as long as I know clearly what is science and what is not science (or pseudoscience) in my heart, and know what problems they can and cannot solve, I will not be misled. This reminds me of yesterday's lecture "Pseudoscience in Daily Life-How to Face it?" During the speech, an audience asked: It is said that a big movie star broke up with the big director because the big movie star forced the big director to marry her; And she did this because she listened to the "guidance" of the fortune teller. Is this an example of being mistakenly hit by pseudoscience? I replied: If there is such a thing, it is indeed an example of children misled by pseudoscience-if big movie stars had come here to attend classes earlier, it would not have happened! The audience burst into laughter.