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The Fated Sky
listen:
 For thousands of years, people have been looking to the heavens for signs, observing the planets for predictions on the harvest, drought, famine, war, peace and even the fates of kings. While most of today's astronomers consider astrology as fake as palm reading or fortune telling, historian Benson Bobrick says that astrology and astronomy used to be firmly linked together. Bobrick traces the history of astrology, from the ancient Assyrians to modern times. Laura's guest is Benson Bobrick, Historian and Author. His latest book is entitled "The Fated Sky: Astrology in History".
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Great interview and I am buying the book...
Two points:
1/ As an astrologer I found it frustrating that Benson (through no fault of his own, nor anyone else's) was only partially able to make the point that astrology is a system which takes (literally) up to 10 years to learn.
Therefore to mindlessly criticise it, based on what you've read about astology in newspapers (or what you know about *astronomy*) is actually proof of your own lack of rationale and empirical methods.
How can you intelligently criticise something you neither understand, nor have tested for yourself?
2/ Also, I write astrology columns and I often use traditional astrology, eg: dignities. So do at least three other writers - no, make that five - that I can think of, off the top of my head.
Very much enjoyed the interview. Thank you NPR, and thanks to Mr Bobrick for the research which we astrologers will lap up. We know that astrology works, as we do test it. It will be wonderful to read about what he has discovered.
Yasmin Boland
www.moonology.com
Making something complicated does not make it true. I’m sure Tom Cruise would love to tell you how many years it takes to really understand the religion of Scientology. I can study rain dancing or alchemy for a decade, but until I can make it rain or turn lead to gold I haven’t actually accomplished anything.
If Astrology were, indeed, a testable, repeatable enterprise, then it would be a field of science and not the quaint relic of primitive, superstitious world views that it is.
Believers in ideas which have empirical integrity have no fear of the scientist. Science advances by testing and retesting highly specific truth claims, whatever their source, in a public, responsible way. This is why scientific and mathematical ideas cross culture barriers so easily. You don’t have to believe in gravity, you can measure its effects in a way that works all over the world and regardless of the beliefs of the measurer.
Scientists would love to prove the existence of influences from the stars on the daily lives of humans. They just can’t because such forces exist only in the human imagination.
Benson Bobrick spoke falsely about Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan spent much energy during his too-brief life debunking superstitions like astrology. Bobrick claimed, among other things, that Sagan became more ambivalent about astrology toward the end of his life.
I knew this was extremely unlikely, so I contacted Sagan's widow and frequent collaborator, Ann Druyan. She denied Bobrick's claim in the strongest terms, stating that "Carl was an unreconstructed skeptic about astrology to the end."
I wish you would publish Bobrick's email address so I could correct him on this matter. Who knows how many times he'll repeat this cruel untruth during the rest of his book tour?