The Russian Academy of Sciences presented a memorandum “On the pseudoscience of astrology.” The published document presents the results of an analysis of the reasons for citizens’ trust in astrology, and also indicates the reasons why this direction cannot be considered scientific.
According to representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, astrology is unable to satisfy the methodological requirements that apply to any scientific discipline. At the same time, experimental tests that were carried out on individual well-known astrologers did not give any positive results. In particular, two such experiments are given as examples.
The first of them was carried out in India, where belief in various astrological predictions is extremely strong. Astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar and a team of researchers examined 27 astrologers and one astrological educational institution. Participants in the experiment were asked to determine, based on the time and place of birth of minor citizens of the country, which teenagers are successful in their studies and who are doing poorly in their studies. As part of the experiment, data from 50 excellent students and 50 lagging students were presented. As a result of the test, eminent astrologers were able to correctly identify only 50% of excellent students and those lagging behind in their studies, which fully corresponds to random guessing.
The second experiment was conducted at the American Indiana University. There, researchers asked six astrologers to compare the charts of two dozen people with their personal data, including recently taken photographs. The main task of astrologers was to compare specific data with a specific photograph of a person. At the same time, scientists stated that an excellent result would be a correct comparison of data and photos of at least four people. Of the six astrologers, only one was able to correctly match the data and the photograph of three people, which also corresponds to random guessing. As the researchers note, this result once again confirms the pseudoscientific nature of astrology.
The Russian Academy of Sciences also emphasizes that another proof of the pseudoscience of astrology is the long-existing James Randi Award and the Harry Houdini Award. The founders of these awards offer fairly large monetary rewards to any person who can clearly demonstrate their astrological or other extraordinary abilities under the conditions of a specifically designed experiment. The awards have existed for decades, but so far no one has been able to claim the promised prize.
Representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences also point out common arguments made by supporters of astrology. For example, that this is ancient knowledge (but antiquity cannot indicate scientificity and validity), that astrologers give accurate forecasts (this is true, but if you make a lot of forecasts, some of them will inevitably come true), that among astrologers there are recognized scientists (though but the opinions of individual people mean nothing without conducting full-fledged research confirming the correctness of the hypotheses put forward).
In the issued memorandum, the Russian Academy of Sciences calls for treating astrology as entertainment, not trusting forecasts when making vital decisions, and not using the services of astrologers without taking previously received forecasts seriously.
