Saturday, January 15, 2011

You're Playing With Fire, Astronomers!

When I read the news this week about the Minnesota Planetarium Society blatantly attempting to interfere in the millenia-old pseudoscience of astrology, my jaw literally hit the floor. Literally.

I tripped over an area rug. It's nothing serious, don't worry. Just a bruise, I think. Though there's now a popping noise when I chew. But that'll probably go away in a few days. Anyway, I digress.

Astronomers! Are you kidding me? Is a little axial precession worth violating the Oxford Agreement? Yes, this new constellation Ophiuchus may indeed lie on the ecliptic, and yes, the zodiac signs may not be where they used to be. But that's no reason to start a war. And war is exactly what you're going to get.

Sure, for now it is only a rhetorical conflict, but that could change. Sure, you may have the telescopes, the facts, and your orbiting space lasers on your side, but they have the gas giants on their side. You do not want a pissed-off Jupiter on your hands, do you?

The ghosts of Galileo, Kepler, Brahe, and others killed during the first War For The Stars are warning you to beware. I would strongly advise you to heed their warnings.

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