Young people are flocking to astrology • Hacker News Board

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#91

Post by maxbond » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:45 AM UTC

luc4sdreyer wrote: post #68

drooby wrote: post #30

I always love getting my tarot cards read. Do I believe it has special knowledge of the universe? Absolutely not. Does it get my thinking creatively and critically about the personal story that I have with my self? Yes. And that has some value.

Of the atheist STEM postgrad degree people I know that love to talk about astrology/tarot, they usually retreat to this type to defence: it's a useful tool for introspection. Sure. But then if I ask them to admit that believing in it is unscientific, the response is something along the lines of "well it could be true". They know there's no evidence for it, but they're probably afraid of offending close friends that a…

Many human experiences are better understood by means that are not scientific. Life is full of aesthetic, moral, spiritual, and even unanswerable questions. Science is incredible and beautiful and profound - but it's not everything.

I can't remember what TV show I heard this on, but I like it; "the true sweetness of wine is... but one flavor."

(ETA: The show was Marco Polo.)

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#92

Post by uwagar » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:46 AM UTC

uwagar wrote: post #65

tbh, the official prediction of effectiveness of the covid vaccines put many astrologers to shame.

[flagged]

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#93

Post by steve_adams_86 » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:47 AM UTC

luc4sdreyer wrote: post #74

nprateem wrote: post #66

I had an argument with a girl the other day who was adamant she wanted to know my star sign. I said "you tell me" and after 10 guesses I finally told her. She then went on to tell me what I must like etc - most of which was complete bollocks obviously. I told her her beliefs were akin to racism. Just because of when I was born she thought it was acceptable not to bother to treat me as an individual but as automatical…

I've experienced similar things many times. Maybe in the future I should propose a $10 bet, where they get three guesses.

Only a pisces would say that!

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#94

Post by keiferski » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:48 AM UTC

luc4sdreyer wrote: post #77

keiferski wrote: post #56

One of my favorite philosophy books is A Secular Age by Charles Taylor. It has a lot of interesting ideas, but a key one is that the “subtraction thesis” of secularity is wrong. By this, he means the narrative that secular society today simply “subtracted” religious beliefs and behaviors of yesteryear. Instead, these things have just morphed into different forms, with astrology being a prime example. It can be unders…

I don't want to support this idea because it goes against my worldview as an atheist from a very conservative society. I grew up on Hitchens and Dawkins. But the YouGov poll [1] that the WaPo article is based seems to support this idea: 30% of Agnostics answered yes to the following question: "Do you believe in astrology, or that the position of the stars and planets influence people’s lives?" [1]: https://today.youg…

Dawkins [1] and Hitchens’ works on religion are pop-science/culture books, not serious academic studies. Virtually no scholars in philosophy, religious studies, etc. agree with the narratives they present.

Instead, I would read Taylor, Robert Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution, and maybe Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality.

1. His non-biological work, that is.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#95

Post by Pamar » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:51 AM UTC

maxbond wrote: post #53

ChatGTP wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is strange...

Yeah, this is a "very intelligent woman in a PhD program" who has a hobby that she shares with her friends, that's no reason to suspect she and her friends can't discuss "important things." My understanding as an outsider is that astrology, tarot, etc function as a shared vocabulary and mythology to communicate about mental health and life's troubles. I think for most people the occult elements are largely aesthetic.…

This is also an interesting/insightful comment. But again, Tarot (and especially Astrology: you cannot really change when you were born) do not encourage self analysis and especially any attempt to change your own mental models/way to do things.

Hugo Pratt, author of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corto_Maltese - hinted at this in one of stories about the character. Allegedly Corto met some sort of Gypsy palm reader when he was just a teen. The Gypsy checked his palm and told him his life line was short, so he would die very young. His reaction: he took out a knife and cut his own palm to make the line longer.

The latter part is usually missing when you use Tarot, Astrology etc.

There is also a desire to know "what will happen to me", but I think that divinatory magic can help even if you are 100% rational: http://www.pa-mar.net/Lifestyle/I-Ching.html

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#96

Post by makeitdouble » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:51 AM UTC

LargeTomato wrote: post #37

My girlfriend is in the middle of her PhD program and is very intelligent but she's really into this stuff. She makes comments about it in public and I cringe. But the worst part is that half my female friends and all my gay friends love astrology. It's very weird.

> is very intelligent but she's really into this stuff.

I was working on an astrology widget for a portal site, and read every advice in it every sign for months at lengths.

None of the advice were ever highly impacting, nor seemed to have a chance to bring problematic results. At best it felt like a nice way to get some variety into someone's life ("wear something green today to improve your luck")

In that light, I feel caring about astrology could be just another hobby, it's pretty innocuous.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#97

Post by donatj » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:52 AM UTC

The number of people in my life who have recently taken to astrology and started buying "healing" crystals is frankly disheartening.

You try to argue with them they just call you toxic.

I suspect it's a social virus.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#98

Post by 2Gkashmiri » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:52 AM UTC

mise_en_place wrote: post #81

figital wrote: post #63

There are epigenetic markers which can identify the season or perhaps even month you were born. If you might think there is a link between personality and birth order and that perhaps metaphor is useful in storytelling or group dynamics … then one could loosely link these concepts together and consider it more than something like a party trick.

Indians often do this with marriages, by checking the astrological compatibility. All of it honestly seemed like bs to me, if anything it’s job security for so-called soothsayers and astrologers, who have been grifting generations of families

Many Indian "Hindus" do that.... There are many many people who don't.

The problem is, it doesn't actually solve anything and as you said, its just securing work for the incumbents.

I live up north, in the valley of Kashmir which has historically been shielded from mainland Indian traditions and culture.

https://upcomingkoshurmahraz.wordpress.com/

I started writing about my own efforts to get married so you can read how things happen in my town. And some of my inner ramblings on the issue

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#99

Post by Biganon » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:52 AM UTC

subjectsigma wrote: post #36

lakomen wrote: post #11

Well, there's astrology and astrology. The newspaper astrology that is so broad you can't take it seriously. Then there's the birth horoscope z the natal chart and whatever which is, believe it or not, more accurate. Astrology is also the oldest form of psychology, it's easily accessible and popular because of it. Why would certain planet not represent certain traits? Who has really studied it scientifically? There's…

> We want to explain the world, learn about it, about ourself. Better astrology than religion. Lol yeah, why seek community, like-minded individuals, or deep conversations about morality when you can sit alone in your room and have an app subscription tell you how you’re supposed to feel that day?

Your describing both the best aspects of an optimal religion and the most stupid aspects of astrology is extremely dishonest and unworthy of HN

And I say that as someone who believes neither in religion nor in astrology

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#100

Post by figital » Mon, Jul 24, 2023, 5:55 AM UTC

nprateem wrote: post #72

figital wrote: post #63

There are epigenetic markers which can identify the season or perhaps even month you were born. If you might think there is a link between personality and birth order and that perhaps metaphor is useful in storytelling or group dynamics … then one could loosely link these concepts together and consider it more than something like a party trick.

If there are such markers, the flaw in astrology is not taking into account the hemisphere. Someone born in July would be born in summer in the northern hemisphere but winter in the south, so they can't possibly have been exposed to the same environmental factors growing up.

I was not being as specific as latitude/longitude, exact time of the day, or “planetary alignments” … only the season or birth month (or perhaps week if you want to get loco). Much of the natural world runs on such a schedule (even considering lunar phases). This would be more scientific than the concept of Groundhog Day, but less “scientific” than a farmer’s almanac.