Why you should not read your daily horoscope?

Oh, hey there! Do you read "your" horoscope? If you are,
you are probably just wasting your time and maybe even harming yourself if you intend to take it too seriously and make important decisions based on what your zodiac sign tells you. Do you really believe that half a billion people in the world are going to have the same problems and the same rewards as you because you were both born on the same month or under the same zodaic sign? I think not! The horoscopes you can find in newspapers and magazines are not exactly personalized. They want to apply to a large amount of people and end up applying to no one.
Being obsessed with puting everything to the test myself, I had to do a little experiment. Instead of ignoring the horoscope section of the newspaper like usually, I read it. But not just the one for sagittariuses, that is supposed to apply to me, but all of them. And I looked for things that could somehow describe the problems and other things I was currently having. And I must say, I did find some lines that could apply to me, but they were not under the half man half horse sign.
Although I don`t know if the guys who write this nonsense they call horoscope, spend hours looking at the stars and planets trying read them, before they start writing or do they just put together a few Barnum statements* for each sign and call it a night, I know they can`t be true either way. I did some reading and I read that astrology doesn`t even take into account all the major bodies in our Solar system, let alone all those in our galaxy or the hundreds of billions of other galaxies in the Universe. If they are trying to see connections between astronomical phenomena and events in our world, then shouldn`t they consider the full picture with everything on it?
Modern scientists consider astrology a pseudosciense as astrology has repeatedly failed to demonstrate it`s effectiveness in controlled studies. So why a lot of people in all parts of the world continue to read and belive horoscopes? Well, some scientists have suggested that much of the continued faith in astrology could be psychologically explained as a matter of cognitive bias. In other words, irrationality.
Adverse to what would seem rational, people continue to have faith in astrology. I ask, why is that so? To they eager to know what the future brings or to they just seek for guidance in their lives? Could be either. But if one would want to point a finger at somebody or something then it has to me media. People working in media are mostly college-bred. They should really know better. They shouldn`t print this quite possibly harmful fiction. But they do. Why? They don`t wanna lose readers and therefore money. Alot of people read horoscopes and if one newspaper would stop printing them, they would most likely start to order another one.
Well we have quite the situation here, don`t we? Newspapers can`t stop printing horoscopes as it could result the sales to fall. So what could be done for stopping this nonsense? The governments could forbid the printing of horoscopes, but even if horoscopes are possibly dangerouse, it would still feel like taking a toy from a child because it`s not rational to spend time playing. So the question remains. I personally think that every once in a while media should publish articles on why astrology isn`t reliable. And then maybe after some time has passed, they could drop printing them at all.
In conclusion I must say that maybe there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and the events in our world, but we can`t use one do predict the other. At least not with the methods used so far. And if to be hones with you, I don`t even find it a loss. I think that it`s for the best. If we could actually predict future, then it would be as dull as watching an episode of your favourite soap after reading the summary of the episode from TV guide.

Now tell me what do you think of astrology? Do you read your daily horoscope?

Sorry for this part but a fellow blogger asked to promote her website about the 2012 - end of the world theory. www.2012-endoftheworld.com/ So if you have a few extra minutes, then there are some interesting articles you could read.


*Barnum statements are statements that people find personally unique and meaningful, but the statements could be applied to just about anybody. e.g You've gone through a lot of ups and downs over the past few years, emotionally and financially, and that has caused some stress in your life.

What goes around comes around

Hello, followers and others, who randomly stumbled on my blog!
I had planed an entierly diffrent idea for writing today. I wanted to type about the absurd nonsense of daily horoscopes, but after a few fail attempts to start transforming my thoughs on that topic into words on my computer screen, I gave up. Hopefully I will feel less blank-minded about that idea tomorrow.

In meanwhile there`s an other topic I feel I could write about today. It`s short of a continuation to the post about karma.

What goes around comes around
It`s a proverb.
It basically means that a persons actions, whether good or bad, will always have consequences for that person.
In my last post I explained what is the popular misconception of karma, well that is the right conception for what goes around comes around.
While karma is something one can only believe or not believe, this proverb can be determined to be true or untrue.
I personally find it quite well-grounded. Surely there are exceptions, but commonly, this proverb seems to be true.
For an example, let`s say there is a random group of people, let`s say coworkers. Naturally, not all of them get along. They have their little conflicts, the backtalking - the normal stuff. Then a new coworker is hired. Let`s make it a her. Not that it matters. She is not a suck-up, but she acts good with everybody, tries to get along and is just bursting with positivity. Then naturally the others feel like they have to be good against her too. They would feel like it would be inappropriate to act any other way. And that`s how it works.
Of course, it works the other way around too. Violence begets violence.

So what do you guys think? In your experience, is this saying rather true or untrue?

What is karma and does it really exist?

Hello, mates! Tonight I feel like writing about something seriouse. I`m thinking maybe about Karma and whether it exists or not? The idea to write about it basically came out of the blue. Let`s see, what comes out of this.
So karma. I guess we all have some kind of a basic understanding of what karma is. We think it`s this magical force that makes sure that bad things happen to those who have done bad to others. And we are not all sure of it`s existence. Right? Well I did some research.
First of all, the word karma is in Sanskrit and it means "action" or "deed". A concept of karma is believed to originate in the shramana tradition of which Buddhism and Jainism are continuations. It`s a believing that our actions in this life decides how we born in next. And by how I of course don`t mean whether dad gets mom to the hospital in time or will they decide to do a waterbirth. It decides whether we are born in better or worse circumstances compared to our previouse life. It seems like it could mean everything from health to whether our parents are living in a suburbian idyll or in a poor and starving village somewhere in Africa.
Secondly, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philospohies have treated the original shramana idea of karma and the meaning of karma differs slightly in different religions. I`m not going to write about them all, but it`s more than sure that the explanation for karma I gave in the first passage of this post, is only partially true. It`s the popular misconception.
Although, the word karma means "action", surprisingly in many religions the world around karma relies on the art of inaction, rather than the art of action. They think (I agree with them on this one) that an action cannot be good or bad and it`s the intention of the doer that can be either good or bad. Depending on the intention the nature of the consequences varies.
Thirdly, believing in existence of karma or not, is everyone`s individual choice. We can`t really prove it`s existence or non-existence.
I`m not saying I believe in karma, I don`t even certainly believe in reincarnation, but I do think that the world would be a better place if we all would believe in karma.