Is astrology pseudoscience?

In some people's eyes, planets and constellations have some connection with people's character and destiny, and even the birth time of two people will be different by a few minutes. For others, there is no essential difference between astrology and fortune telling. However, the reality is that the more educated students and white-collar workers are, the more popular astrology is.

This collision between astronomy and astrology is not the first time in the history of science, and it will never be the last. Astronomer Zhu Jin used the word "nonsense" many times, but he couldn't dispel people's doubts. In the past few decades, a series of new discoveries in psychology, physiology, medicine and earth science have only raised more possibilities for people. These findings also suggest that astronomy alone is far from enough to prove or falsify astrology.

In English, astrology and astronomy have the same root astro. Astronomy and astrology can also be well combined-astronomy can calculate all the constellations in the sky when a person is born, as well as the positions of the sun, moon and planets. Or, one's astrolabe. The astrolabe is the beginning of astrology.

Astrology sprouted around 2500 BC. Its core is about the human soul, which is the connection between celestial bodies and personality-the background is the Greek philosophy's questioning of the universe and soul for two hundred years in a row.

According to Aristotle's summary in On the Soul, people's discussion of the soul begins with the essence of the soul. At that time, people thought that people were human and the soul was the soul because the soul could promote movement and drive the body with its own movement. This is the starting principle. The second principle can be called the perception principle. Philosophers believe that the soul can perceive everything because some components in the soul are similar to natural elements.

Astrologers believe that there is some kind of universal unity, which largely comes from Plato. Plato said in Timio: "The celestial bodies are visible, but the soul is invisible. The soul contains reason and harmony. The way it works is to silently follow its own movements and act on everything equally accurately. "

The easiest problem to think about in astrology is that different people are divided into 12 constellations, and there are 7 billion people in the world. Are there so many people the same? In the eyes of professional astrologers, this question is raised because of people's misunderstanding of astrology. "Astrology is a category of journalism, not astrology," Lei Rui said. "Constellations are like our entertainment news-gossip news has nothing to do with astrology." Serious astrology uses the sun, moon and planets, not just ordinary constellations.

The most doubtful thing about astrology in astronomy is also related to constellations. Astrology uses the constellation 12 located on the ecliptic, while astronomy has a concept called "precession", that is, the periodic oscillation of the earth's rotation axis. Because of precession, there are now 12 constellations on the ecliptic, instead of 12 thousands of years ago, and there is an Ophiuchus. The twelve constellations are still used in astrology. What is the explanation?