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Young people are flocking to astrology

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701–710 of 972 posts

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“People like games that offer low-stakes predictions about their personality” has both more explanatory power and is much more parsimonious than the explanation you’ve presented. Unless we’re prepared to consider consuming Cosmopolitan an “occult practice” as well, of course.

"People like games that xyz" is a conclusion, not an explanation. Why do people like them?

Why do people like cotton candy?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know the Five Factor Model is a far more scientific measure than MBTI. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits - Repeatability - Not based on Jungian pseudoscience - Peer acceptance

Big 5 is accurate but hard to explain. MBTI is fairly easy to explain and honestly it's not like astrology where it is random, an INTP does act very differently than an ENFJ

The important difference is that psych frameworks are a description. And astrology is a predictor.

If you’re not a Taurus, the elements of a Taurus are not supposed to relate to you. that part of the framework is theoretically irrelevant.

If you think you’re an INTP you likely are. If you think you’re a Taurus then… doesn’t matter.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And come on, we know holy texts are full of things which are clearly wrong, in exactly the same way astrology is. The temptation to gloss over them as ornamental bits is huge, but to believers they are doctrinal. I can't think of any precise statements that are clear enough to be proved true or false. Usually holy texts have vague enough language that it's very much a case of interpretation. e.g. The Genesis creati…

>The Genesis creation story states that God created the universe in 6 days, but any attempt to demonstrate that it is false will have believers declaring that a "day" is not a precise measurement of time. The Bible is rather clear that God doesn't measure time like humans do. "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." 2 Peter 3:…

... and thus some Christians claim the six day chronology in Genesis is really a six thousand year chronology... which still doesn't square with science.

To say nothing of the fact that 2 Peter was written centuries (if not longer) after Genesis, and there's no evidence the Hebrews themselves interpreted the account that way. The existence of the Sabbath falling within a single week rather than multiple millennia suggests they interpreted the six day chronology as... six days.

And the context of that verse clearly describes time from the human perspective relative to God's promises. The author isn't making a declarative statement about the way God experiences time, but pointing out that God doesn't operate on human timescales. That God may lay plans that take a thousand years to unfold.

That particular retcon doesn't make Christians look any better, it actually makes them look even worse.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#704
post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> shouldn't, try to change people's minds. Yeah the abolition of slavery was a mistake. We shouldn't have tried to change people's minds about that. We also should never have changed people's minds about smoking not being bad. Just let people believe what they want to believe. Live and let live. Fully agree with you.

What the hell are you talking about? Lecturing someone on racism because they asked about astrology is not the same as abolishing slavery.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#705

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See perhaps "Causality and radioactive decay": * https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2014/12/causality-and-radio...

Is it my imagination, or does Fesser always leap into an accusation of the poor reading skills of people who disagree with him? Anyhow, I can't really find a decent answer in that blog - my understanding is that he hand-waves it away by declaring that it is beyond physics and thus can't be confirmed or denied by such. Not a satisfying answer to my mind and I consider that tower of logic to be on shaky ground.

> Is it my imagination, or does Fesser always leap into an accusation of the poor reading skills of people who disagree with him?

He's been publicly writing (online) since 2008:

* https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2008/

At some point attacks on straw men gets tiring I guess.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And come on, we know holy texts are full of things which are clearly wrong, in exactly the same way astrology is. The temptation to gloss over them as ornamental bits is huge, but to believers they are doctrinal. I can't think of any precise statements that are clear enough to be proved true or false. Usually holy texts have vague enough language that it's very much a case of interpretation. e.g. The Genesis creati…

>The Genesis creation story states that God created the universe in 6 days, but any attempt to demonstrate that it is false will have believers declaring that a "day" is not a precise measurement of time. The Bible is rather clear that God doesn't measure time like humans do. "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." 2 Peter 3:…

Okay, so are the 6 days actually 6 thousand years?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The Genesis creation story states that God created the universe in 6 days, but any attempt to demonstrate that it is false will have believers declaring that a "day" is not a precise measurement of time. The Bible is rather clear that God doesn't measure time like humans do. "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." 2 Peter 3:…

The bible is a clear about a lot of things that are utter nonsense, I wouldn't use it as a guide for anything related to things like measurements of anything. And a day is a day, no matter how you try to spin it after a couple of thousand years of peddling nonsense to try to make the gravytrain go a little farther. This is no different than the Jehova's witnesses changing their 'due date' whenever it doesn't work.

Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” Romans 3:4

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#708
post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get given the crystals as gifts sometimes. the healing element is obviously complete nonsense, but they're aesthetically pleasing. they're also a potentially massively profitable business venture if you have easy access to a lot of credulous people, which certainly facilitates their spread >I suspect it's a social virus you say this as if this is different to any other idea or meme or brand

> you say this as if this is different to any other idea or meme or brand I mean it is different, in that it flies entirely in the face of reason. What concerns me is that I've seen otherwise reasonable people fall for this.

perfectly reasonable people eat at McDonalds and buy crisps and support a football team. if you sit down and think about them, they all fly in the face of reason too

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The Genesis creation story states that God created the universe in 6 days, but any attempt to demonstrate that it is false will have believers declaring that a "day" is not a precise measurement of time. The Bible is rather clear that God doesn't measure time like humans do. "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." 2 Peter 3:…

Okay, so are the 6 days actually 6 thousand years?

I take it to mean the creation account is from God's perspective not ours.

I don't have the slightest problem with modern science and it's reckoning of creation.

The universe started with light in both accounts.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#710

I see a lot of parallels between astrology and sports fandom. Sports team affiliation is pretty arbitrary and often based on where someone was born (which is out of their control). There's tons of lore, stereotypes, compatibilities, and rivalries between various teams (which is largely artificial). Sports fans care deeply about things that ultimately have little impact on their lives (does is really matter who wins t…

I get that you're saying that when a team wins or loses, you clearly didn't have anything to do with it. So associations with an organization that just wants your money are as arbitrary as divination. However, as a Vikings fan I've experienced multiple times the feeling that "this might be our year" only to see everything taken away, charlie brown style. So the feeling of shared hopelessness is something I have in common with local Minnesotans. Maybe that's the irony: that I think the true meaning of being a Vikings fan is to suffer, accept Ragnarok and NOT believe in them.
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