Korean Job Discussion Forums

[seonsengnimble]

Why on Earth do so many people accept Astrology as fact? Double blind tests show predictions to be inaccurate. There is no evidence for correlation between birthday and personality. There is no legitimate explanation for how the movement of celestial bodies influences either our personal lives or our personalities.

I assumed astrology was as widely accepted as things like wicca and ramtha, but apparently it's pretty widely accepted.

I don't get it.

[PigeonFart]

You falsely assume that most people are as rational as ourselves.

[charliebrown84]

Why is the sky blue? No one knows the answer to that. Oh wait...

[curiousaboutkorea]

because people are silly and irrational. See also, "MSG=poison" thread and the other MSG thread.

[tomato]

There was a German doctoral student who ran a whole battery of tests on astrology.
Only 10% of those tests came out statistically significant at the .1 level and 5% came out statistically significant at the .05 level.
But she wrote at the end of the dissertation that she still believed in astrology.

In reply to your question, I honestly don't know.

[detourne_me]

F'in magnets.
How do they work?

[Underwaterbob]

People love to think they understand.

[8 years down]

How about the Chinese zodiac.

Admittedly I don't know much about it. But since it goes by years does that mean it claims everyone born in 1982 has the same personality and character traits?

[Underwaterbob]

[The Goalie]

We are pattern seeking animals. We were able to recognize the complexity of the world around us long before we could even begin to understand it. By creating patterns such as those offered by astrology we were able to tame the chaos somewhat and live with the belief that there is order and there are reasons for what happens. For some reason, such superstitions still seem more interesting to a lot of people than the increasingly satisfying explanations offered by science.

[NYC_Gal]

Comfort?

I'm baffled by it, but some people need something to believe.

[crescent]

2 years ago, I was approached by a man in a park here in Korea who offered to do a free reading for me.

He had a huge book, and did some calculations. In a few minutes he was able to accurately assess the following things about my personal history in exact detail:

- i studied sciences, but threw a tech job away to make a living with music
- our family suffered extreme financial loss as a result of a dishonest uncle
- i lost my father to a heart attack while i attended university
- no matter the size of my income, i have frequent financial losses/emergencies that deplete my savings to almost zero
- i was engaged but the relationship failed shortly before the wedding, leading me to travel to Korea.
- the next girlfriend i had would propose to me

He was wrong about a few small things, but this was 100% correct, even the marriage proposal. At the time I gave no affirmation to his reading, but it made me a believer. You can't guess that stuff, and last I checked, science also has it's share of errors, and things that can't be explained.

I've also noticed that an overwhelming amount of successful romantic relationships in my circles fall into the 'ideal' astrological match categories.

[The Happy Warrior]

I read the blurb on my sun sign, and as much of it seemed wrong as it was right. For example, there were many conflicts between my Miers-Briggs description and the general Cancer sign description.

However, I read the blurb on my particular birthdate, and it seemed more accurate than not.

Do I believe in astrology? Not really. I definitely don't put faith in any of the predictions. Some of the descriptions? Well, its probably the case that I read them and then assess them as plausible (although in the case of the general cancer, much is just wrong).

But I don't need to root my beliefs in scientific data. Although its always better when science is on your side!

[ED209]

[Globutron]

Anyone else that doesn't go by the 'I'll believe it when I see it' rule?

If a guy came along and predicted everything I was going to do and have done, I wouldn't be content at taking that and just swallowing it... I'd need to understand how, rather than just 'wow it must be the stars'.

Even scientifically speaking, I can't take what I learn to be true without digging into it and finding out why and how. Hence why I lack any faith, religion, spirituality - Science is the only one of them all I can actually research and understand for myself.