Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Young people are flocking to astrology

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 972 posts

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#451

Post by packagethieves »

mavhc wrote: post #240
anon-3988 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I think that it is perhaps beneficial to not completely remove religion, but replace it with something that is more aligned to the 21st century. Let's be honest, humans are very flawed and prone to succumb to religious thinking; regardless of how smart/dumb you are. Superstitious thinking can arise from simple day to day observation. So it is much better to fill in the void with something dull like "do go…

Organised Religion is good for people, because it keeps them from believing even crazier ideas, and still tells you to see a doctor when you're sick Most of the people who go to Organised Religion don't really believe in God, they're just in it for the tea and biscuits, ie it's a social club. If you really believed in God and Heaven you'd become a monk or nun, logically you'd spend your finite life maximising your ch…

A lot of anti vaxxers seem to advertise themselves as Christian. I think the actual problem (when it comes to anti vaxx, incels, and similar cults) is the internet unfortunately.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#452

Post by JackMorgan »

Belief in astrology looks a lot like the personifying animals or anthropomorphizing of inert items. Maybe the toaster hates you, or maybe it's just faulty and confirmation bias is strong.

Belief in astrology puts words to the chaos and randomness of life. There's something very human about how we try to add life and agency to everything: mother earth, ghosts, forests, grumpy co-workers, broken toasters, and the actions of those around us that don't make sense. We try to breathe life and meaning into everything. That's why I don't get too keyed up about it. I think plenty of people "believe" in astrology about as much as they believe the toaster hates them, which is probably quite a bit.

We have to remember, as STEM people we have to see the world exactly as it is, without any superstition or mystery. But the average person has the ability to live in a world filled with mystery and magic that is backed by a lifetime of confirmation bias.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#453

Post by hombre_fatal »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #279
benterix wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more and more difficult to detect sarcasm these days but in case you are serious yes, we all treat people differently based on their looks, and it happens especially in sexual relationships and is not limited to humans.

All female software devs reading this just got extremely uncomfortable, and this comment chain no doubt brings up childhood body image issues — issues that men can’t know what it’s like. I point this out from the sidelines in case any thoughtful devs reading this might want to reflect on their behavior. It wasn’t till I married one that I started to reevaluate mine.

If an HN comment is how a female software dev learned that hot people are treated better, then this is the easiest way to learn that lesson and they should say thank you. But this “think of the women!” hall monitoring has to be worse than whatever violation against women you thought you read in this thread. Are you sure this imaginary audience of female software devs isn’t made uncomfortable by your sort of comment about how we can’t even talk casually about human experience lest they feel uncomfy on HN?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#454

Post by xwdv »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #440
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…

Dude, lighten up. She was playing a game with you, probably flirting. And you didn't play the game very well. Mysticism is fun, aesthetic, and filled with more questions than answers. Play the game some time, you might enjoy it. I also can't believe you actually found a way to weasel racism into the conversation. It's all so tiresome.

Sorry, but I don’t see where it says he has to respond to a woman’s nonsense flirtatious mysticism by lowering his own standard for discourse down to her level. He does not have to tolerate her magical thinking.

I think he drew an interesting correlation between racism and her astrological beliefs that she likely has never heard before, and perhaps will give her some much needed introspection. That is a far more meaningful outcome than whatever else their conversation about astrological signs could have had.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#455

Post by EspressoGPT »

alpaca128 wrote: post #340
rmbyrro wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s serious hate for Apple amongst techs. Really? Wow. My anecdotal experience is that most people in tech are blind fans of apple.

I think it varies a lot by where you live. In the US Apple seems to be much more popular, meanwhile where I live it's more seen as overpriced fashion brand for non-technical people. The few people in technical fields who actually use Macbooks tend to see it more as time-efficient alternative to Linux, at least that's my observation. I have met a lot of Apple haters in the past but not a single blind fan.

[flagged]

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#457

Post by Tade0 »

donatj wrote: post #97

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.

The other day I went with my family to an old pyrite mine which is now a tourist spot.

We were greeted by a stand with crystals with supposedly miraculous properties.

What was the only miraculous thing to me was the type of poker face the seller had when explaining the details of his products' properties.

I can't hope to ever reach this level of, ahem, professionalism.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#458

Post by nmilo »

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…

There comes times that you need to put your own principles aside for the good of yourself and for the other person, and forget trying to be "correct" all the time. Life gets a lot better when you realize that you probably can't, and shouldn't, try to change people's minds.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#459

Post by whstl »

oxfordmale wrote: post #366
whstl wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It is an useful filter to reduce the pool of eligible candidates when dating, even if it is random." I mean, yes, that's true. But IMO it's not really at random. I don't think anyone would dump someone because that person is a Scorpio (unless they're absolute nuts). It's more like a conversation starter to let people open up and talk about their personality traits. You bring up jokingly "ugh my ex was also a Leo...…

There is little scientific evidence to suggest there is a correlation between personality and star signs. It is a good icebreaker, and to gauge common interests.

"There is little scientific evidence..."

Yep. I'd be surprised if there's any!

Still a fun icebreaker.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#460

Post by flkenosad »

rcme wrote: post #427
varjag wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no qualitative difference between belief in astrology and any of the world's religions. Not saying you're not entitled in disregarding astrology believers but the cut-off point is completely arbitrary and dare I say irrational.

How is believing in religion rational?

Is it not rational to partake in activities which make one feel good?
Post reply on HN