The Myth of Horoscope Is Not True - Essay Example

The Myth of Horoscope Is Not True        Horoscopes are one of most popular myths in the world right now. It not only determines a person’s characteristic but also predicts one’s fate. Because of human being’s strong curiosity, the people are using horoscopes widely for different purpose such as love, financials, and other purposes. It provides an opportunity for people to think about their future life. Some people even use it to predict the weather. However, I personally think, that the myth of horoscope is not totally true because it is just an unrealistic imagination combined with a technique from psychology.       Before talking about the truth of horoscopes, it is important to know where they came from. It can be traced back five thousand years ago to Mesopotamia where many different races such as Babylonians and Assyrian lived. Their original religion had a certain level of faith in celestial bodies. In fact, astronomy was actually considered as a part of horoscope during this period of time. They imagined and formed certain stars as picture of an animal or a human being.  Later in about 592 B.C, Greeks developed and named those pictures with Gods’ name. They even gave stories to explain how these Gods exist in the sky. These illusions became what we call constellations nowadays. Horoscopes use these constellations and planets in solar system to predict people’s future (Morris & Powell, 2006).       However, the contradictive point is that constellations are just stars which are hundred million light-years away from earth. How person’s future can be judged by a couple of rocks from the universe. Constellations are illusions, and it is not necessary for astronomers to give a name to each group of stars. Astronomers can just simply assign a number to stars, but then astronomy will become boring for people. That is why Greeks made constellations in association with fairy tales, so that people could remember those stars easily. Astronomy is an art as well as science. Unfortunately, horoscopes manipulate the original meaning of astronomy. Whoever believes in horoscopes completely are already losing their judgments.       Horoscopes are just a Pseudoscience, and many scientific ways prove that horoscopes are not true. First, constellations have actually shifted about 25 degree away from their original positions. It means that each constellation is not corresponding to the correct time to which it is assigned. It is precession, which is effected by the motion of Earth and it, will take 24,000 more years to complete one cycle. So how can horoscopes predict correctly when constellations are not in the right position? Second, an astrologer states that constellations are associated with planets. However, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto have been found after the seventh century, and they have not even completed a revolution around the Sun. it is doubtful that how astrologers can determine the exactly influence from these planets when there is no enough information about them. Finally, scientists have proved that radiations such as light and X-ray can affect a person’s growth. Nevertheless, the affection will only work when the distance between radiations and a person is on the Earth. Indeed, stars from universe have radiations, too, but they are too far away from the Earth. Even if their radiations reach the Earth, thick walls from buildings block those radiations to least affect a person who is inside the building. So our own technology overwhelms the force from space that falls on people. As a result, horoscopes do not have any scientific evidence to prove their truth. (Bakich, 2004)       Horoscopes are just a combination of statistics and psychology. Astrologers first collect the data of group of people with the same constellation. They analyze how many people have similar characteristics. Second, they classify constellation’s characteristics with couple of highest rates from the data. For instance, if many people whose constellation is Cancer are kind and peaceful according to the data, then astrologers will define whoever is born in the month of Cancer with these characteristics. The explanation of a constellation is actually too broad. In fact, it is just a strategy to make the myth of horoscope become true. In twelve Taurus people, there may be eight of them with a Stubborn Personality. Nevertheless, in twelve stubborn people, how many of them are Taurus? Probably only one of them is Taurus. Furthermore, there are twelve zodiac signs according to the horoscopes. But astronomers actually found the thirteenth zodiac sign, which is Ophiuchus. So the theory of twelve zodiac signs is not true anymore. However, many people still believe in horoscope. It is because most astrologers are also psychologists. They know how to use skillful speech to play with people’s mind. For example, Barnum effect is the most common skill in psychology. A psychologist named Bertrram R. Forer demonstrated it. He gave a personality test to students and asked them to rate from 0 to 5 on how accurate are the results. The rating was high and surprising, and it scored 4.3 on the average. It shows that most statements are identical with subjects’ personality. It is because Barnum effect uses vague general statement to describe a person. In this way, horoscopes can increase their accurateness on prediction. (Fichten & Sunerton, 1983). For instance, an astrologer may say “you will have surprises with your money this week” to someone. The person who earns a lot of money will think that it is really true. On the contrary, the person who loses money also thinks that the prediction is true.  People easily accept the fact just because the statement seems to be correct.       Statistics may help astrologers to find each constellation’s personality but it also can prove horoscopes to be wrong. Michel Gauquelin, a French psychologist and statistician, performed a research where he claimed that he would do a horoscope forecast for 150 people for free. However, the forecasts he gave to those people were totally same, and results were unbelievable. More than ninety percent of people said that the forecast is identical with their personalities. Unfortunately, the horoscope forecast is from a France mass murder. As a result, Gauquelin stated that people who already had knowledge of horoscope would use their natural problem solving abilities to make sense of the vague statement. (Bothun, 2004)       People who believe in horoscopes too much can actually get hurt, especially on their money front. Many people think there is no harm in believing on horoscopes. However, this idea is totally incorrect. It is because horoscopes have become business in our society. If people want to get a complete prediction, astrologers will charge a certain amount of money to do the work. Nevertheless, this is the problem why idea of no harm is wrong. For instance, if astrologer’s prediction becomes worthless, then people lose their money for getting nothing. Maybe one time of incorrect prediction will hurt them much. However, by the time people realize they do not get any good result in forecast; they had already lost a lot of money. As a result, horoscopes can actually be considered as a service, which cannot guarantee anything.  There are even worse cases of people spending more money on horoscope.  In Asian countries like Japan and China, many astrologers are seeking to earn more money. So they sell some stones and crystals, which they claim, products can increase people’s zodiac signs’ power. Some astrologers even threaten people if they don’t buy these stones, they will have a bad luck in the future. Many enthusiastic believers lose their wealth just because of buying those expensive and useless products. It is obviously a horoscope fraud. How can a stone change one person’s fate? If a stone can change our future easily, we wouldn’t have to work so hard to live. Therefore, horoscope is the myth that people should not believe firmly.       Horoscopes are similar to religion. People are relying on it to feel at ease, to remove their confusions, and to find out their fates. However, it can only be used for consideration because it is not true at all. It has not been proved by scientific process. It can not provide a specific prediction for a person’s fate. As a matter of fact, no one can ever predict the future. Every single thing that happens does completely in random. People have to believe that nothing can really control and force the destiny. A person’s destiny is created by his own power and decisions. Human beings have more potential than we expect. People have to accept themselves. Believing in such a myth is not facing the fate but actually escaping from it.                  Bibliography Bakich, M.E. (2004). "Astrology: FACT or FICTION?". Astronomy, 32(12), 50-56.  Bothun, G. (2004). Lecture of Astonomy 122. University of Oregon: Department of Physic. Retrieved June 5, 2009 from http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/lectures/lec01.html  Fichten, C.S., & Sunerton, B. (1983). Popular horoscpoes and baunum effect. Journal of Psychology, 114, 123-134.  Morris, l., & Powell, B. (2006). The Greek: History, Culture, Society. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Read More