Do you think there is some truth to horoscopes?

If there is any truth to them, it’s coincidental.

I forgot to mention I looked up a bunch of people in my family as well and they seem to relate as well. It’s weird!

i agree that theres truth in it. i dont base my life and every day activities on it, but i usually end up with people im compatible with in my zodiac. its very interesting.

This question is a good answer to phoenyx’s question about the dangers of “a little learning.” If one refuses to look critically, one can always find patterns in the most random of occurrences.

In other words: the zodiac is pure coincidence. Do you really think that the relative position of stars, seen from our small and insignifant location in a far corner of an endless universe, actually determine your future? Any future? If so, you have an extremely limited view of your existence.

PapaLeo… I don’t think it’s that simple. I have a very detailed view of it myself. I wanted to know how YOU feel, that’s why I asked the question. I am learning by comparison, whether I take anything away from these people’s answers or not, I’ll be able to further strengthen my own opinion either way.

Just because I ask a question a certain way does not mean I feel that certain way. I try to get more responses by wording it carefully.

No.

Try this. Have a friend take a page of horoscopes, copy it, and cut each one out- removing which sign the horoscope is assigned to. Take the signless horoscopes and assign them to people you know. Then have your friend check if the correct signs were matched with the correct people.

A good astrologer will use what’s in the chart as a springboard to read the person he or she is casting the horoscope for. Because it’s filtered through the perceptions of a savvy person, that sort of horoscope can be surprisingly accurate.

But the newspaper horoscopes are just silly—even if you were to assume that astrology as it is practiced by experts was true and accurate, the newspaper horoscopes would just be a pale reflection of a very limited subset of that.

I think personally we can see what we wanna see in everything we read, especially about ourselves. I can look at a horoscope and see the similarities and even if they outnumber the differences I could still see it as accurate if I did not pay close attention to detail.

Absolutely completely no. I appreciate James Randi’s video where he handed out identical horoscopes to students and had the majority of the class agree that it best described them, without knowing they were the same.

It’s the same technique as cold reading, google that for more info. Which is to say, people are more likely to pick up information that confirms what they think and discard information that does not fit their thoughts. Thus they will pick and choose right portions of the horoscope and believe it was tailored to them when in reality it was not.

@Loried2008 Sorry, I didn’t mean it personally. When I wrote “you,” I meant in the general sense, not you personally.

Please take my answer, and every time I write as a fact, insert “I feel that,” or “people say that.”

Better?

Oh I didn’t take it personally sorry if I made you think that :) I liked your answer.

Yes, there might be some truth, but it has nothing to do with planets and stars. It might have to something with seasonal changes and the related hormonal changes of the pregnant woman. But the charlatans who write horoscope seem to know little about hormones. I’m not sure if they could even come up with a definition or even name some hormones related to pregnancy and birth.

The only benefit of horoscopes is the placebo effect which is a scientific fact. I’m fine with that. I take issue when horoscopes trigger nocebo effects harming people.

There was also a major study done in England where they surveyed and observed many babies born at the same time, to see if their lives synced up or otherwise had any semblances as they grew up and became adults. They did not have any abnormal semblances.

@dynamicduo Thanks for the reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading – a good read. Hey, I can use this!!

Of course not. For horroscopes to be true, every single person on the planet – all 6.7 BILLION of them – would have to be having 1 of 12 “kinds” of days. That’s it. 6.7 BILLION people, 12 possible days. I’ve had more than 12 different kinds of days in the past month.

It’s only as true as you make it for yourself. I think if you think about something enouph it will eventualy unravel and come true. I think it’s more designed to give you a glinps of what could happen and then your brain will subconteincly make it happen .. It’s the power of possitive thinking or visa versa like elvis always said he was ganna die at 45 he said it all the time was almost obsesive about it because his mother died at 45 and sure enouph he died overdosed sitting on his dirty thrown at 45. Also profesional athletes visualize themselves doing well at there game before they start sort of like meditation and this has been a proven strategy that improves your game. It’s all in your head.

I think there’s a difference between horoscopes and the zodiac. I think it’s completely impossible that horoscopes are at all accurate – whether you’re getting them from the newspaper or a psychic.

Zodiac symbology is somewhat more confusing. I want to say it’s all coincidental, and I can’t think of any logical or rational basis for it. But it is really, really odd how many of my friends and lovers have been people I’m supposed to be attracted to – and for that matter, how a lot of people do seem to match their zodiac sign. There are exceptions, of course, but it seems to be roughly true. So I don’t know.

I certainly wouldn’t make any decisions based off the zodiac, but it’s fun to think about.

On facebook, one of my friends sent me the horoscope application, I accepted it because I thought it would be funny. It gives me a new horoscope for each day and it is always ridiculously accurate. Actually it’s a bit scary.

I guess I meant Zodiac then :)

I think there’s truth in astrology, and at the very least it gives you a vocabulary of characteristics to try on and see if they fit. Horoscopes are many degrees diluted from that.

I like the notion that one’s astrolgical chart is essentially a picture of the heavens at the moment you were born. That makes room for a lot of individuality.

Telling, too, is the Nazi empire’s reliance on astrology (not to mention the presidential Reagans). If you asked, I’d say that I believe astrology is used somewhat religiously by government elite types. I don’t have another explanation for why the Vatican employs an astronomer.

…for me it is like looking into God’s Face…i can rely on it only as much as i know that God can have a change of thought at any time…i am a believer not without caution…

I like the funny ones. True (ie. predictive) though? nope.

horoscopes are intentionally vague so that the reader will interpret it in a way that matches his own perceptions.
i have yet to see a horoscopes along the lines of “tomorrow at 15:32 you will drop the strawberry ice cream that you bought 5 minutes and 46 seconds before that event. Your cousin from china who came over to pay you a surpise visit will then buy you a replacement ice cream at 15:46:21 for € 1,50.”

@ragingloli that’s an awesome answer xD

My latest horoscope told me not to rely on information found in horoscopes because it is mostly, if not all, spurious for the most part. So, it does appear that there is some truth to horoscopes even if the information is totally paradoxical.