Whether to believe in horoscopes

Horoscopes – prediction of life, destiny and human nature, depending on the location of the stars and planets in space are very common today, although modern science claims that astrology is a superstition. Vague and General proposals of horoscopes for almost any situation, although in some cases they help indecisive people to find a way out of this situation.

What is the horoscope?

Astrologers call a horoscope is the picture of the position of the planets in the sky at a particular time, often finding the planets is described, depending on the signs of the zodiac, which divide the celestial sphere into twelve parts. Since ancient times, people believed that those born under the same sign have similar personalities and destinies, their lives affected by the position of the planets and constellations.

The first astrological beliefs appeared several millennia ago in Mesopotamia, and the first individual horoscope began approximately in the fifth century BC.

Surprisingly, the belief that what is happening in space affects the smallest details of human life – down to small problems and mood swings – have been preserved to our days.

Why can't you believe horoscopes?

Astrophysicists, astronomers, and other scientists confidently declare that trust in horoscopes is not necessary, since astrology is a pseudoscience. Their explanation is simple – the astrologers often rely on the constellations, whereas from a scientific point of view of the constellations are stars in their composition are very far from each other distances, some of them already do not exist, just the light from them is too long to reach the Earth.

A few simple experiments helped to confirm the invalidity of the horoscopes. In one of them the American psychologist gave the students the text with the same characteristics of the person, but said this individual descriptions, they made up for each person. He was asked to assess the compliance of those charts reality on a five point scale the average rating was equal to 4.5, that is, the majority of students decided that these features almost exactly describe them. Such cases in science are called "forera effect": if you use in the description of the common phrase, rather vague proposal, to notice the catch impossible.

In the preparation of horoscopes astrologers use this effect: they do not write about specific events or details the personality traits, and more General, and necessarily indicate that there is a small number of exceptions, this completely eliminates their liability.

Cases matching horoscopes real life due either mere coincidence or the fact that people, knowing their "fate", begins unconsciously to obey it and to rebuild their behavior.

Nevertheless, horoscopes continued to exist, and a significant portion of people still believes in them. In difficult situations the credibility of astrology increases, this helps to find solution in difficult positions, to make the right choices, to understand their desires and feelings.