Home	Top Ten	Budget	E_Commerce	WinNT/2K
Contact Us	Top 5	ISP	Guide	PHP

 

Astrology and astronomy grew up together throughout a large portion of human history. The two cannot in fact be distinguished until only the past few hundred years, and because so many people mistakenly think that astrology is some kind of science, it often happens that the two are even today still confused with one another. Some astrologers like to claim that astronomy is simply an "offspring" of astrology - for example, reveals a common prejudice by defining "astronomy" as being "...of relatively recent origin, this discipline has become separated from and generally hostile to astrology." The evidence, however, is inconclusive on that score. There is just as much reason to think that astronomy came first and astrology developed later on. For example, it is clear that the Babylonians studied the motions of the stars for millennia before anything like a system of astrological interpretation developed. Studying the stars without astrology would have made a lot of sense because it served as a way of telling time - this, then, would tell the rulers when it was time to plant crops, when floods might come, etc. Whereas astrology is the study of how events in the sky affect events here on earth, astronomy today is the study of the radiation and movement of extraterrestrial objects. Astronomy is a science, based upon careful observation and prediction, designed to help humans learn more about the universe in which we live. Astronomy has also been responsible for the discovery of asteroids, planets, stars, galaxies and more. Astrology is not a science. Astrology is not based upon collected data and carefully controlled, objective observations. Astrology is not based up falsifiable predictions which are tested and re-tested by independent observers and researchers. Astrology has not discovered any celestial objects - indeed, it is not clear that astrology has discovered or revealed anything at all about our universe. What astrology is, however, is very good business. Books on astrology bring in billions of dollars each year, and who knows how much money professional astrologers earn collectively. This is one reason why astrology and astronomy stayed togeth