•What is “science”?
–Empirical : must
always be based on observations
–Predictive : should be
able to predict new observations
–Reductionist(?) : tries
to discover underlying “laws”
•Why don’t astronomers believe in astrology?
–Precession has moved
the “Sun signs”
–The constellations are
not real entities
–Local forces are much greater than forces due to stars or planets
–Astrology is not
really predictive (rigorous statistical analyses
shows this)
–[of course, just
because it is not science doesn’t mean it should be banned, just that it shouldn’t pretend to be
science]