On Astrology
I notice in my Blog profile, my sign of the zodiac is listed. I regret this, but it comes with the territory.

I would rather not have my sign showing, for the simple reason that it reinforces the fraud/delusion/hoax that is astrology. You may say, “Come on, it’s just for fun. Nobody expects that the little reference to astrological sign will have any significant effect.” Try saying something similar to Big Tobacco, which pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a star smoke a cigarette once in a picture, just an incidental smoke. Tiny references add up.

Astrology, horoscopes, signs…the whole thing is of course demonstrably false. Experiments show that the location of Mars, say, in the sky when you were born has zero effect on whether you will lose your wallet today or marry a tall, dark stranger tomorrow. Same with the Sun. And to top it off, the dates are wrong. I’m supposed to be a Virgo, meaning that the Sun was in Virgo when I was wrong. Well, it wasn’t. ALL the dates are wrong. Yours, too. That means you have been reading the wrong horoscope in the newspaper all your life. You’ve been waiting for, or avoiding (they cover themselves by giving two options) the wrong person all this time!

Seriously, the fact that so many people accept astrology (and ghosts, ESP, werewolves, psychic fairs, etc.) as valid is disconcerting to me…especially as I am a physics teacher. Carl Sagan said “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence before they should be accepted.” I find it unfortunate that so many people accept stuff for which there is no evidence or even evidence to the contrary.

Pertinent quotes on this subject:
Sagan – “Don’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out.”
Person sitting before a “psychic”, after being asked his name, “Why do you need to ask?”
Me: Did ANYBODY forecast 9-11? (Answer: no.)