Sunday Times 2
Astrology is not science; it takes believer for a ride
I refer to last Damith Vitharanage article under the headline ‘Astrology slain at the feet of MR.’ (The Sunday Times February 22). I am responding to this article because it has made some references to a previous article by me.
I shall comment at some length on DM’s views because I find them dangerous. They could be as damaging as distributing heroin to school children. Belief in astrology has done much harm to the innocent, gullible citizens of this country. It has robbed them of the power to make decisions for themselves based on their own judgement. Poor MR’s debacle is an excellent example of that.
Let me analyse some of DM’s errors:
His first and most egregious error is classifying astrology as a ‘science’. Far from being a science, it is a superstitious belief in something not too dissimilar to witch-craft or the occult. It is certainly not a science as the word is understood by scientists. A fundamental feature of the scientific method is that it is based on a sequence of steps: Observation, the development of a hypothesis to explain the observed phenomena and to make predictions, and the testing of its validity by experimentation. All successful experiments must be repeatable. If any prediction is seen to be incorrect, the hypothesis has to be abandoned. The key feature of science is the ability to falsify any theory by finding evidence against it.
A notable feature of astrology is that events in the future are not predicted with precision. You are never told by the astrologer that you will meet with an accident on March 11 or some such date. Instead you are warned that there is a danger of your meeting with an accident, and you should be careful. This is a win-win situation for the astrologer. If you meet with an accident you are convinced that he is an outstanding astrologer. If, on the other hand, you do not meet with an accident, you attribute it to heeding his valuable warning. So, either way, your belief in the authenticity of astrology is strengthened. In a very short time you are virtually his slave. You will not dare to embark on any project except at the auspicious time worked out by him (sometimes using logarithmic tables and other mumbo-jumbo).
A characteristic of all believers in astrology is that their memories are selective. They only remember the predictions that came right. All those that went awry are forgotten – or airily dismissed. As our own Sumane pointed out, even Nostradamus sometimes got it wrong! My father was a believer, and I made a note of his astrologer’s predictions about me. Since his predictions were about future ‘tendencies’ more than actual events they were mostly right. He would predict that I would do well in my examinations, and I would. Any prediction that went wrong was forgotten by my father – but not by me. That is one of the reasons I treated astrology with disdain from my youth.
Another reason I doubted the efficacy of astrology was that there was no scientific theory that could satisfactorily explain the relationship between planetary positions at the time of an individual’s birth and his own actions and experiences. The very basis of the ‘science’ was flawed because it is well known that by a Caesarean birth an obstetrician can at his own whim determine the time of a baby’s birth. So a surgeon can determine the entire future course of an infant’s life!
Another flaw in astrological theory is that one of the planets in the solar system, Pluto, was discovered only in 1930. The influence of this planet has therefore been necessarily ignored.
It is my fervent hope that as a consequence of the sea change that has taken place after January 9, the Government will, once it has dealt with the pressing problems it is faced with, re-examine some shibboleths that have taken root here to our detriment. I am referring to The Mahinda Chintanaya and some of the slogans it has enshrined; such as do not touch the state-owned enterprises that are bleeding our economy. This is the time to re-examine cherished beliefs and abandon those that are no longer working. One of them is the superstitious faith in ‘auspicious times’. Such beliefs are peculiar to backward nations. We should try to eradicate our reliance on superstition. It was never encouraged by the Buddha.