Comments on: 31 Percent of Americans “Believe” in Astrology

By: New Poll Says 25 Percent of Americans Believe in Astrology » The Horoscopic Astrology Blog

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:55:27 +0000

[...] year ago I expressed my reservations about the wording behind these types of studies which attempt to quantify the amount of “belief” in astrology, since I don’t think that most astrologers would consider themselves to be [...]

By: New Poll Says 25 Percent of Americans Believe in Astrology » AstroDispatch.com » Astrology Around The Web

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:15:07 +0000

By: jo

jo — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:54:21 +0000

that’s about one out of every three people isn’t it? sounds like a fair percentage

By: Chris Brennan

Chris Brennan — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:11:56 +0000

I guess that the question boils down to whether or not astrology actually works, or does represent a tangible phenomena in the universe, versus the notion that there is no legitimacy to astrology whatsoever, thus leading skeptics to classify it purely as a belief or a superstition.

The underlying assumption is that a belief isn’t necessarily real. Like for example if a person was to say “I believe that the Earth is flat.”

I think that this was the underlying connotations of the word “belief” that Greene was objecting to. The notion that astrologers believe in something simply for the sake of believing it, rather than believing in it because they think that it actually works.

By: Ryoin

Ryoin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:48:57 +0000

I have to disagree with Greene and say that her answer to the question was just…silly. (decided against stronger word). Personally, I do think it’s possible to “believe” in astrology. I think it’s a bit ridiculous to compare it to a car whose existence and effect on the world are non-debatable, and I can certainly see how people have to believe that their car will safely carry them from one place to another, but perhaps I misunderstand her point.

Belief: confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof.

Up to this point, there has not been a very good study of astrology by the scientific community, in short, astrology lacks “hard” proof and the only “proof” people have in justifying the existence and effects of astrology happens to be anecdotal. That’s not very good, but somehow our personal experiences with astrology have led us to trust in something that we don’t completely understand and something that we may never be able to completely grasp. I’m pretty sure that qualifies as “belief”.