Planets on earth.

I am not sure of the relation between Hindu religion and astrology and for one who is at best an 'agnostic' if not an 'atheist', I do not share the same faith in astrology like my mother. My mother did not force any of her beliefs on me since I neither discouraged hers nor propagate my beliefs within my house. Of course, she would be glad if I were to be a 'law abiding' Hindu. Since my marriage is getting postponed (or am I 'destined' to be single?), she has been advised by 'others' and saying that I should visit 'navagriha temples', all of which are in TN. I initially booked train tickets as usual impulsively on Oct 8, but we couldnt reach the railway station despite starting 2 hrs 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. Bangalore traffic is the most chaotic that I have seen and to add fuel to fire, there was a cricket match. We reached station 5 minutes after train had left and since my mother would perceive 'cancelled trip' as ill-omen, I immediately booked the same trips on Oct 11. It turned out to be a wise decision, because if we had gone earlier the trip would have been chaotic as we had no plans - not even a good map to have a sense of distance between temples. I could chart out a decent plan second time around and more importantly 'execute' it to perfection.

I have decent 'knowledge' on astrology and as per my knowledge, it was a futile attempt by our forefathers to 'predict' future. Belief on 'super natural' or 'extra terrestrial' took the form of astrology or that 'planets' movement decide our destiny. There are of course people who try to 'intellectually' prove or disprove. I dont waste time on such silly things. Basically the underlying philosophy is that life of each person (or living being?) on earth can be put as a big equation with lots of variables. If we know the value of variables, we can say XYZ will have flu at the age of 9, will work in domain of arts, marry at the age of 27, have n children etc. I had already blogged about 'generalizers'. So astrology is on this basis of 'generalization' that there IS A 'GENERIC' EQUATION in which position of 'planets' are the variables. If the value of variables are known, then equation of life can be used to 'predict'.

I am very much FOR 'generalization' as a set of common characteristics of people. Some level of predictability in how people react to some things is infact very good, what Krugman refers to science fiction where 'social scientist's are able to predict what and how people react to an 'event'. Humans whether based on geography or language do tend to share a lot and behavior is definitely one of them. It is indeed natural to 'expect' similarity among people who share same 'native'. What surprises me is when I see people with absolutely no 'corelation', think on similar lines. I had blogged on how I had thought on same lines as Ian Chappell, especially on 'sense of fairplay'. I can agree if astrology is used to denote/describe traits of a 'class of individuals' at a high level. I dont have any issues with say 'Linda Goodman book on Sun Signs' talking about how people born in certain months behave or perceive things around them but I am absolutely have nothing FOR 'future prediction' of one specific individual using 'planets' as basis to the point of saying 'XYZ will have chicken pox at the age of 4, relocate at the age of 17, study till age of 25, have four cars, 3 houses etc'. I am only amazed to see TV programmes running regularly 'feeding on such beliefs' :(