Do you believe in Astrology?

[Diamicles]

I'm not calling you an astrology nut, your premise just doesn't seem to hold much water.

well, the sun and moon cause tides (2 different types of high and low tide depending on their alignment) that move millions upon millions of gallons of water, it can't be that far fetched to think the specific pull of that gravitational interaction doesn't mess with the electromagnetic balances in our brains a little bit - so who's to say that other powerful celestial forces (even things like dark matter and cosmic strings that we can't pinpoint, let alone measure) don't have an effect on us as well?

it's not really something we can calculate - but like I said it is interesting to consider the possibilities.

[Max™]

Actually it is something you can calculate, and it is something you can trivially show is a meaningless consideration because the direction of said influences is varied so dramatically from moment to moment, as well as the minimal strength such factors could have, that if they had ANY influence at all, we'd be gibbering piles of insanity due to the constant variation in the strength and direction of the forces tugging at your brainstuffs.


Right now you're traveling roughly 1000 mph to the east, over a hundred thousand miles an hour to the "right" if you're facing the sun with your head pointing due north, as well as the motion vaguely towards solar north as we plow through the milky way.

http://calgary.rasc.ca/images/solar_...tic_centre.gif
http://calgary.rasc.ca/images/howfast_solsys18.gif

[Ashmada]

since we all have brains (although some don't function as well as others).

Clearly.

The Unified Theory points out that gravity and electromagnetism are directly related since gravity affects anything that has a mass. Electrical pulses are the basis of our CNS and brain function. It's not that far of a reach to say that the interaction of celestial gravitational forces MIGHT have some effect on our brains. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal to me, I just like to think about interactions between different forces (with a background in physics, shouldn't be surprising)

http://www.wired.com/magazine/wp-con..._physics_f.jpg

Trolling this thread is sooooo page 5.

On the off-chance you aren't: a background in physics would tell you that distance and mass tend to matter when considering forces.
Astrology doesn't take them into account, it just uses a pretty meaningless value (when forces like gravity and electromagnetism are concerned): direction.

[Riposte]

Now for the more important question: How cool was your dude in Final Fantasy Tactics? I got fucked over big time.

[Ashmada]

Heh, pretty ok.

Fire Emblem (7) was another matter. Ice affinity is pretty uncommon.

[Pirian]

if they had ANY influence at all, we'd be gibbering piles of insanity

Actually, this explains my gf

[Max™]

Yeah, after considering major news organizations, I retract my statement.

[Kerberoz]

we'd be gibbering piles of insanity due to the constant variation in the strength and direction of the forces tugging at your brainstuffs.

[zoobernut]

The latest video in the youtube thread is pertinent to this thread. Everyone should go watch it.

[Ksandra]

Actually, this explains my gf

I was gonna say doesn't gravity effect our menstrual cycle? Astrology works for women then.

[chiyio]

The latest video in the youtube thread is pertinent to this thread. Everyone should go watch it.

I'll just post it here as well, it really is an awesome video. definitely worth the 9 minutes.

[Max™]

Uh, no, pretty sure it is variations in illumination which cause your brain to trigger menstruation at different times, and given the fact that the main variation in illumination during the night for most of human history was the moon cycle, it is no big surprise that there is a correlation between the timing of the two.

As silly tards like myself try to point out whenever the discussion moves to climate, though, correlation is not causation.

[Yuri-G]

one thing I don't get about the "astrology works because of gravity" theory is, assuming all that shit is true, why would it only affect us for a very short period of time (i.e. the day we're born)? if whatever constants going on in the solar system when the sun is in Leo are so strong that they can affect human minds, wouldn't they affect everyone, not just the tiny little babies being born?

I mean basically, even if we take this gravitational influence stuff at face value - which is iffy enough - we're also being asked to believe that it doesn't affect fetuses or babies that are older than a day or two. it only affects newborn babies right at the moment they shoot out of the womb. yeah, I don't know about that.

[Kerberoz]

Why even bother looking that far into it? Even if gravity affected personality, a meteoroid the size of a football in orbit has more gravitational pull on you than Antares does.

[Yuri-G]

right, there's no point in even asking the question. my point is just that even if all the gravitational influences shit were true, there are still massive flaws in the theory.

I've found some legitimate reasons to believe in certain aspects of the metaphysical world, but I have to say that astrology isn't one of them.

[Kuya]

If it were quantifiable to the point of being a measurable effect, as astrology would have you believe, then it would be a very simple experiment to administer batteries of personality and other psychological tests to a random sample of the population and see if birth dates correlate with answers/scores on the tests.

Spoiler alert: it's been done, and there's no correlation between astrological sign and personality traits.

psychology tests? You might as well use magic tests!

[Restrat]

Just watching Cosmos on Netflix, and heard this:

But the gravitational influence of the obstetrician was much larger than the gravitational influence of Mars. Mars is a lot more massive, but the obstetrician was a lot closer.

[Mizango]

Just watching Cosmos on Netflix, and heard this:

*Brofist.

Anyone that respects the genius of Carl Sagan is a stand up guy in my book.

[BerenTebogo]

That video is so fucking good.

[BerenTebogo]

From FB:
"Because of the way the stars now align, they added another sign and moved dates around. Everyone is freaking out about it. But in all reality, it really only affects people born after 2009 because it depends on how the stars aligned when you were born, not how they align now."

Kill me.