"A Horoscopic Perspective"

I feel incredibly sympathetic towards our ancestors for looking to the sky for answers. The dependable, regular movements of the heavens stand in stark contrast to the chaotic, unpredictable, and often violent Earthly world. It's not a huge stretch to imagine that perhaps the positions of the planets would tell us something important. Indeed, many of the early pioneers of what would become science were motivated not by understanding nature for the sake of it, but to build better tools for astrology.

Alas, the more we learned about the celestial realm the more we realized that it's just as chaotic, unpredictable, and often violent as it is down here. And while one of the great triumphs of scientific understanding was the realization that physics is universal throughout the cosmos, that same understanding places strict limits on what can influence what across the vast expanses of time and space that we call the universe. And it's very clear that the positions of the planets bear no relation to human activities.

So why does astrology persist even today? It's part confirmation bias - horoscopes and attributes are so vaguely written that you can give the exact same "prediction" to a hundred people and most will agree it applies to them, despite their sign. It's part cultural tradition - when humanity has been doing something for at least thousands of years it's hard to shake it off. And it's part comfort - who doesn't desire some form of control or knowledge over their lives?

It's this last part that puts science communicators in a tough spot. Obviously horoscopes fill a need in the lives of some people. If we're to (rightly) claim that they're bogus, what do we have to offer in replacement?