Horoscope?!

[Guest]

 

> I don't know how it is in other countries, but in our country people, both, young and old are obsessed with horoscope and astrological signs. You could almost always hear the question: what astrological sign are you? Sometimes it bothers me. I respect everyone's religion, ideology, sexuality and similar and I respect those who reads daily horoscopes and believe in them. That's not an issue. The issue is when they hear me saying: "I do not read horoscopes and I do not believe in it." Most of the time people look at me strange, like: "Are you serious? ....  It looks like that believing in horoscopes is kind of religion. When I say that I am a libra, they immediately give me description of me and theory what other astrological signs are compatible with mine and which are not. Again, when i told them that I do not believe in such things, they sees me as heretic or not normal.

> What's your opinion about it? Because

[Alessia Wellington]

I sometimes read the horoscope in the newspaper, just to see what crap it says. I don't believe in it.

[Psalam]

Horoscopes have a long history. It was said that the Roman Emperor Tiberius built his entire life around his, for example. I've never found much use for them personally. They are, as far as I am concerned, dealt with by a variant or Pascal's wager. That is, either they work or they do not. If they work they are immutable and, therefore, knowing them does nothing of any consequence. Or, they do not work. Take your pick.

 

(Now, take this in the spirit intended, I'm a Virgo on the cusp of Libra and am therefore destined to be a skeptic.)

[Guest]

41 minutes ago, Alessia Wellington said:

I sometimes read the horoscope in the newspaper, just to see what crap it says. I don't believe in it.

> My Ivy's mother reads them and she believes in them.

[Guest]

43 minutes ago, Psalam said:

Horoscopes have a long history. It was said that the Roman Emperor Tiberius built his entire life around his, for example. I've never found much use for them personally. They are, as far as I am concerned, dealt with by a variant or Pascal's wager. That is, either they work or they do not. If they work they are immutable and, therefore, knowing them does nothing of any consequence. Or, they do not work. Take your pick.

 

(Now, take this in the spirit intended, I'm a Virgo on the cusp of Libra and am therefore destined to be a skeptic.)

> If i remember correctly, you called me cynic once. So shouldn't skeptics and cynics be kind of half brothers and sisters or some kind of relatives by nature of philosophy??

[Psalam]

A cynic is a disillusioned idealist.

 

A skeptic is a disheartened one.

[Guest]

Just now, Psalam said:

A cynic is a disillusioned idealist.

 

A skeptic is a disheartened one.

> that's why they should have "half" before noun.

[TT.]

imo horoscopes are just for fun, they usually tell very mundane or vague stuff, not something i would rely on

 

Although it depends on the horoscope, like the chinese one is veeery important for chinese elders it seems and these people strongly believe in them

In the end you just believe in what you want and nowadays no one should judge people based on their beliefs

[yorpers]

The human brain naturally tricks itself. A good example is looking out a window late at night at a group of trees and seeing a person staring back at you. It is jsut branches, but the brain misinterprets what it is seeing for a moment to validate innate fears. The same sort of thing happens when you read something vague. The human brain fills in the rest, if you let it. 

[RohZima]

Those ones in the paper are nonsense but it doesn't mean that actual astrology is nonsense. Almost everything in the media is nonsense nowadays. Look at it from the perspective of your star sign and compare that with a list of famous people with that star sign; do that with a few others, maybe of people you know; see if patterns begin to emerge.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, RohZima said:

Those ones in the paper are nonsense but it doesn't mean that actual astrology is nonsense. Almost everything in the media is nonsense nowadays. Look at it from the perspective of your star sign and compare that with a list of famous people with that star sign; do that with a few others, maybe of people you know; see if patterns begin to emerge.

> I did talk about it very seriously with few people who are deeply into astrology. My best friend Fran i one of them and we talked about it many times. He tried to convince me into its reality and effectiveness on or lives and characters, but still, it's not my cup of coffee just like religion of any kind. I strongly believe in love, friendship and such things. everything else is good to know about and I don't mind to be informed, but .... sorry. 

[Gukahn]

I read an horoscope exactly once and i only came in contact with one person who really believed in them. Actually.. One of the reasons she broke of with me was because i couldn't take it seriously ? and to quote her: Our zodias where never compatible. which is also the stupidest excuse i ever listened to ? But this is.. Over a Decade ago. After that nope, never met another person who seriously believe in them. Don't even think it's that big of a deal in my part of the world

[Fotogen]

"Leo needs to listen to others, Pisces will fell the temptations of love, and Aries will face many challenges"

 

Hmm, that fits everyone.

 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Gukahn said:

I read an horoscope exactly once and i only came in contact with one person who really believed in them. Actually.. One of the reasons she broke of with me was because i couldn't take it seriously ? and to quote her: Our zodias where never compatible. which is also the stupidest excuse i ever listened to ? But this is.. Over a Decade ago. After that nope, never met another person who seriously believe in them. Don't even think it's that big of a deal in my part of the world

> When I was in faculty, I met girls who seriously believed in horoscopes and they followed it to the letter. Several of them also broke up with their bfs because of "zodiacs incompatibility". Really? What is interesting to me is that women in general believes is such things harder and stronger than men.

[Guest]

Just now, Fotogen said:

"Leo needs to listen to others, Pisces will fell the temptations of love, and Aries will face many challenges"

 

Hmm, that fits everyone.

 

[Gukahn]

Just now, Evaloves4 said:

When I was in faculty, I met girls who seriously believed in horoscopes and they followed it to the letter. several of them also broke up with their bfs because of zodiac incompatibility. What is interesting to me is that women believes is such things harder and stronger than men. Kind of phenomena

Interesting thought on that. Why more often then not women believe in it more then men do ? Now that i think about it, i can't find any real reason why

 

[Psalam]

15 minutes ago, Gukahn said:

Interesting thought on that. Why more often then not women believe in it more then men do ? Now that i think about it, i can't find any real reason why

 

When I was a younger man and horoscopes were more popular here in the US, they were very popular with men. It gave rise to, what is now, a classic pick up line, "what's your sign?" (Yeah, that's part of why they were popular.)

[Gukahn]

7 minutes ago, Psalam said:

When I was a younger man and horoscopes were more popular here in the US, they were very popular with men. It gave rise to, what is now, a classic pick up line, "what's your sign?" (Yeah, that's part of why they were popular.)

Maybe just a regional thing, many things and trends  from the US swapped over to us later on, but horoscopes where never that prominent with men, at least not in my circles ? But i was never that social  so i could be wrong on that part.

[Fotogen]

20 minutes ago, Evaloves4 said:

> What is interesting to me is that women in general believes is such things harder and stronger than men.

 

Most likely not. Man and women talk. Alot. Proven. And no, woman don't talk more. Its about even. Proven.

It's more likely that man and woman talk about different things. And "horoscope" is not #1 on mans hit list.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Fotogen said:

Most likely not. Man and women talk. Alot. Proven. And no, woman don't talk more. Its about even. Proven.

It's more likely that man and woman talk about different things. And "horoscope" is not #1 on mans hit list.

> I will not contradict to you since I do not know how is in your area, but where I live, women are more involved in horoscopes and astrology than men. Proven.

[steelpanther24]

I find it fascinating that people believe in horoscopes, but at the same time, I believe that we, as  a race, are no more intelligent than we were in the the 1900s, 800s or in the 800s BC or even in 2000 BC.   Knowledge is not the same as intelligence.    That said, it does make sense that people would seek simple explanations to explain what is a complex equation.  

 

What makes a person who they are are dependent on so many variables.   That we have some things in common means that we are, at our core, a social being.   So, I find myself more in line with Eva than others, accepting those who want to believe, respecting their choices and able to disagree without being disagreeable.

 

I also looked up the habits of Taurus and what do you know, I identified with almost all of them.   I suspect if people were to give one distinguishing habit or characteristic of themselves, we would be able to guess their birth month within 6 months.  

[Splendor Solis]

A horoscope is just a map of various celestial objects at a given date, so I do believe in that. As for making predictions based on that horoscope, it's hard to find any objectivity. Whenever something doesn't happen, you could explain it away with some other event, or that the astrologer was simply unskilled. And even most astrologers say astrology isn't deterministic (this was necessary to not contradict theology concerning free will during the medieval period) which means false results could be explained by the conscious actions of other people. Since I can't judge it objectively, I don't really use it in decision-making. Although I do support psychological astrology, since anything that gets people to introspect is inherently valuable.

 

What I find most interesting about astrology is how it's basically an early form of systems theory. It tries to describe everything within an interconnected framework of planets, signs, and houses. It's sort of like the different types of atoms, but on a spiritual level, sort of like how all things were thought to be composed of a mix of the classical elements.

[Papitas]

The idea of reading a newspaper to predict how your day will go is stupid, of course. 

When you make so vague predictions you can fit whatever you want into them. 

 

I mean, you can randomly take whatever sign prediction for the day and you will find it to be reasonable that it can happen to you as well. 

 

But I find the idea that environmental conditions like seasons, star alignments and such, to somehow influence your predisposition to have some type of personality rather interesting and worth studying. 

 

I mean, tides created by the Moon seem to somehow affect our collective behavior and stas are bathing us at all times with all kind of radio signals and things we don't even know about. 

[arliel]

I read some astrological stuff from time to time simply because I find it interesting. It is just another form of entertainment. But I don't base my life on it. Only time I read my horoscope in a paper or something was to kill time. I just find the idea of it interesting, whether it be Western or Chinese. 

 

Judging by some things I've said one may assume I regard it highly, but it is more so jokes. Such as after my ex and I split, I joked that it was because dragons and snakes (Chinese) are highly incompatible. And meeting some... uh.. less than ideal men, we will say, made a joke that next time I'll ask their sign to check compatility.

 

From what I've read on the topic, the Chinese seems to suit me better than the Western. Western, maybe half. But apparently I fall in what's called a 'cusp', which is the time of the month that transitions from one sign to the next. So basically I feel a few qualities from one sign suit me and a few from the previous as well. Still, none truly, because it is sort of basic, and a lot of the 'power', could say, it has come from people's beliefs in it and also the minds. Connecting that they read/see to their own lives.

 

But again, entertainment. Which includes artwork for it. There is some lovely artwork people do for the signs and I like seing those from at times as well.

[Guest]

Well, my personal view is, horoscopes are just not science. So you can disregard them.

But yes, lots of people read them regardless.

I think that is, because people want to make sense of things they can not control.

Just for fun, i will make one day get me an astrological analysis of myself provided my birth dates and time.

Though we are in the western world supposedly Christianized but we went into a marriage with Christian believes and our pagan past. So people still hold on to these things from the past.

In the past, as young kit, i read them as well. But they never were actually right. So its more anecdotal and the hope, that something could be right.

I am from Germany and i know, lots of people there read them even though they may not admit it. Its just something that sticks with society.