Astrology is a Scam

Mr. Monkey — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:21:36 +0000

What the Hell? People still believe in astrology?

Yes. Yes, they do…and far more people believe in astrology than you might think. A Gallup poll showed that about 1 in 4 American, Canadian, and British people believe in this stuff. As you may have suspected, more women believe in astrology than men do.

Although I wouldn’t have included extraterrestrials as part of a paranormal poll, the results pertaining to astrology are interesting. Take a look at these graphs:

(Source: www.gallup.com)

The human race has advanced so far and yet there is no shortage of ignorance. The phenomenon of silly beliefs such as astrology are a sad reminder of this fact. This type of pseudo-science not only holds society back, but it is morally wrong and deceitful.

Astrology is a business. There’s a reason you find it in newspapers. It’s been shown to increase circulation of newspapers, so for the sake of money, they include them. Ironically, these publications are still called “news”-papers and not “whatever-makes-money”-papers.

The scam artists who call themselves astrologers get paid a lot of money to prey on peoples’ insecurities. Even some stock market scam artists get scammed by the astrology scam. “Financial astrology” is the practice of using stars and planets as a guide to investing. Sounds pretty stupid, but it exists.

“Uhh…so once Saturn does it’s cycle thing with the Moon and Venus and stuff, you gotta invest in Coca Cola. Kapeesh? That’ll be 50 bucks.“

Astrology had begun to die out since the 1600’s, but perhaps money is the reason for its recent resurgence after World War I. If there’s money to be made, you bet there’s some spineless people who will be there to capitalize.

For those of you who are unsure about astrology, or even marvel at it’s “amazing accuracy” from time to time, I challenge you to take the test below. Just select your birthday from the list below, read your horoscope, and honestly think about whether it’s an accurate description of your personality or not.

Horoscope Astrology Personality Test

Seriously, I’ll wait. Go ahead and try the test.
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*twiddles thumbs*
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So? Was I right? Is astrology a scam?

What?!

It was accurate? How’s that possible?

Ok, just for fun, try a birthday other than yours. See what the horoscope has to say.

Did you try it?

See what just happened? Don’t feel bad. That’s how these astrologer scam artists fool people. They prey on your insecurities and utilize our similarities to do it. It’s called the Forer effect.

So there you have it. Proof that astrology is a scam. Also, I have to credit The Republic of Awesome for that test. Good work Roger.

If you’re looking for actual painstaking scientific proof that astrology is a scam, I suggest you take a look at the work of Dr. Geoffrey Dean and Dr. Ivan Kelly. They ripped astrologers a new one and published it in the Journal of Consciousness Studies. Click here to check it out. If you don’t want to read the full study, but still want to understand the results, click here.

If you’re an astrologer and you truly believe this stuff is real, why not prove it? James Randi is offering $1,000,000 USD to anyone who can offer proof of paranormal claims. If what you claim is real, then you should be all over this offer. If not, you’re probably a scam artist who’s afraid of ruining your own reputation, and thus your dirty scam income.

Just for fun, here’s a few videos on astrology:

Derren Brown demonstrating an experiment similar to the one in this article:

Bill Nye exposing a blatant flaw in horoscopes:

Carl Sagan using simple logic to debunk astrology:

James Randi conducting an astrology experiment with students:

Ironically, the Google Ads on this page will probably be for horoscopes or something…SMH

Another Nail in the Moon Landing Hoax Coffin

Mr. Monkey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:01:30 +0000

I still remember when I first saw the original Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theory videos. I must admit, they were very convincing at the time, especially without testing the claims. Soon after the allegations were made that NASA didn’t go to the Moon, but rather shot the footage inside a studio, people started analyzing the Moon Landing hoax.

Before we get to the analysis of the conspiracy theory, here’s a recent photo taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Currently in a 50 km high orbit around the Moon, it snapped this photo of the Apollo 17’s lunar module descent stage. Even the flag is visible.

It’s also worthy to note that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter had previously taken photos of all the Apollo mission and Surveyor landing sites, but the images were taken from a farther distance than the recent photograph of the Apollo 17 landing site. Because of this, there is hardly anything distinguishable in those photographs.

Anyway, this photo is kinda grainy, but considering that the “photographer” is currently in orbit around the Moon, it’s very plausible that it is what they claim it is. Most hardcore conspiracy theorists would need more evidence than that however.

Well, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. MythBusters, with a little help from www.clavius.org, actually took on the challenge of testing the claims made by the hoax theorists.

Here’s video of the MythBusters’ team taking on the challenge:

Unparallel Shadows:

Moon Reflection:

Footprint:

Flag waving:

Retroreflector:

Monkey Log | The Evolution of Society » debunk

Astrology is a Scam

Horoscope Astrology Personality Test

Another Nail in the Moon Landing Hoax Coffin