All that is needed is a date, time, and place of birth. This presents an azimuth from which mathematical calculations are made based on ongoing relative position in space. The vectors are in terms of degrees of a circle, the zodiac. The earth experiences seasonal variation in relation to it's solar entity as well as it's larger cosmic position. For example predictable meteor showers.
In the summer time living is easy. 'Clement and inclement conditions are something we are all familiar with and we have a variety of ways that we respond to them. An association it is possible to consistently make is mercury's progression and it's influence on communication. There are times when I feel more fluent than others and this is my initial awareness of the issue. Upon expressing frustration during one of the periods when expression did not come easy, my wife said mercury is in retrograde. My wife was an old school astrologer that did charts by hand and she spent a huge amount of time with the math. Any way over the years I have watched my subjective state in this regard and noticed the progression of the planet in question relative to our position and found that it coincides. This is an interesting coincidence. Could simply be self suggestive but here is the thing. The times when I checked were times when I first noticed an exceptional state, that is either I noticed I was exceptionally fluent or exceptionally tongue tied. I wasn't looking for coincidence in general. It was the remarkable state that reminded me to look.
How could this information be relevant beyond curiosity. Instead of forcing the issue and acting like it should be summer all time I bundle up when the weather turns cold. It is a way of easily managing seasonal tension.
1.) Date of Birth, Time, and Place 2.) We need it to put it into the Astrology software that my girlfriend uses to print out charts. The software doesn't provide any description other than the literal chart. 3.) I relay and describe accurate parts to your personality based on the astrology chart, in spite of not knowing you personally 4.) You see my descriptions as accurate but you consider it too generalized and vague, and could potentially apply to anyone. Your lack of understanding of Astrology may also lead to other "write offs" about the information that you will explain away in your left-brain way. Or you just find the description inacurrate.
We know there are space weather phenomena that affect us in practical ways. One such phenomena science identifies as cyclical in terms of peak sunspot activity.
Just because Hume wrote about it doesn't make it so. We tend to use the term "supernatural" for things that seem to defy our current understanding of the laws of nature or science--leaving open the possibility that what we call "supernatural" today will be part of science tomorrow. It is conceivable, though, that the phenomenon we're dealing with is simply not subject to the laws of science, because, for example, it is the author of those laws. I tend not to believe in the supernatural as a mater of policy, since when we start invoking supernatural explanations, we leave ourselves open to believing anything. But I admit that by rejecting the supernatural, I'm accepting the risk of Type 2 error. BTW, atheists generally disbelieve in all gods, not just some of them. As Webster puts it, atheism is:"a disbelief in the existence of deity" (not a deity). I realize that Dawkins' quip draws lots of applause at atheist gatherings, but it seems kind of silly.
You're quite right that we no longer believe in goblins and unicorns, although I know a few people (Zoroastrians) who believe in Ahura-Mazda, and even a few who believe in Ahura-Mazda's evil opponent, Angra Mainyu, aka. Ahriman (the Dakma of Angra Mainyu is small but active here in Oklahoma). There are an estimated 2.6 million Zoroastrians in the world, including the Parsees of India. There are 127 active fire temples--100 in India, 27 in other parts of the world. The Avesta , as reconstructed by Sassinid priests, is among the the oldest books of the revealed religions, and the Gathas are believed to be the actual words of the Prophet Zarathustra. Zoroastrians discourage converts, so their numbers are dwindling, but they are recognized by Islam as "people of the Book". I find the Avesta to be inspirational, and I haven't been smoking a thing. Zeus has been less fortunate in the evolutionary struggle among memes, but Hellenistic pagans still worship him. A few of them can be found in the Pagan forum on this site, although most pagans there seem to be Wiccans, Druids, or Teutonic/Norse pagan practitioners. Most pagans I know seem to honor all the gods, which makes going to pagan weddings such a lengthy affairs. I think Zeus's anthropomorphic qualities and personality quirks limit his appeal these days, even in comparison to Yahweh and Allah. Unicorns and goblins were never worshiped as deities, so they lack an institutional support structure to keep belief in them alive.
In what format? According to what calendar? Which timezone? Do you use Longitude and Lattitude or GPS coordinates? Do we account for elevation? For all of these items, please explain why you require the information in that particular format. That your girlfriend uses? Why don't you use it? Why do you need software to do this? Aren't you an arcane practicer of magick and astrology? What does the software do that you don't? How does the software work? On what basis does it create the charts? What are the principles aligning the metrics you require and the charts produced? On what basis is there a physical connection between those metrics and the vagaries of my personality? This doesn't prove anything, conmen, charlatans, and even just any random person can infer a lot about a person. Heck, just by guessing, you are statistically going to get about 50% of my personality metrics correct, if defined in binary format (which they always are): Introvert/Extrovert, Likes to explore/Likes to stay home, Likes romance/not interested in romance, etc. Just by guessing you will get half of these right. This is not proof of success. Even if you got 100% of them right, that would constitute an event of not terrible rarity, and would also represent a sample size of 1. We already have studies in which much larger sample sizes were used, and the effects purported to exist here were found to not exist. So this doesn't work. What's plan B? Why would I see the descriptions this way? What could you do to change this? What could I do to change this? What if this occurs because the descriptions are in fact too general and vague, as is the very heart of the issue with the claims of astrology? If I find the descriptions innacurate, would YOU then conclude that astrology is not real, based on this single sample size? You keep referencing the "left and right brain" meme as though it were hard science; did you know it's been debunked? http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html Do you regularly check on the factual assumptions you carry to ensure your data and models are up to date? How is it that this fundamental fact of neurology and cognition has escaped you, and you continue to espouse something that is simply not true? Could it be that you lack intellectual rigor and any kind of training in scientific and logical thinking? Could it be that I'm really massively wasting my time by trying to play a fool's game?
I'll just add my 2 cents about the astrology software: I have no idea of the software you speak of, but I am going to go with the assumption that it takes certain parameters as inputs that you provide, and then consults some lookup tables stored internally that are analogous to astrological charts and whatever else may be involved. So, essentially it's no different than if you did this yourself, except far quicker and easier and possibly without the user even being aware of the underlying algorithm and what i mean by this, is that the user isn't required to necessarily know how to read an astrology chart and produce a reading in order to use the program. I really don't see much difference between something like Astrology and something such as fortune cookies. Astrology is shrouded in a few more layers of mystery and complexity but only a few.... in the case of the fortune cookie anyone could have picked up that cookie, or you and your friend could switch cookies. In any case, it purely up to chance as to who receives a particular cookie, with a particular message. And it is also purely up to chance whether or not anything in the fortune cookie message can be taken to apply to the receiver. Speaking of software once again: Is anyone here familiar with the UNIX program `fortune`? Somewhat similar to the astrology program, when run it prints out a message to the screen. Now, for some reason this really sheds some light onto such things. This is not much different than receiving a fortune cookie, but somehow when it's in the form of a computer program there is ZERO mystery left, even if some of the messages seem to apply. This is no different than receiving a fortune cookie, except possibly being a computer program, i have a decent idea of how it must work (note to self: take a peek at the source code when not busy). It has a finite number of messages that it can display and somehow chooses to pick one, probably at random. It knows nothing about the user, it cannot know anything about the user. Let's say that it did know some things about the user (it's a sophisticated program that has gathered some information about the user before hand which it uses in an algorithm to pick fortune messages that may be more likely to apply to the user), this doesn't change the fact that had i stepped away from my computer, and someone else instead had run the program the results would have been the same. Its the same program, same data. Ever heard of the birthday problem? How many people out there would get the exact same results from an astrological reading?
Where do problems involving mathematics arise from? Misinterpretation of the data or limited parameters? The speed of light for instance.
the application of mathematics can be erroneous but not mathematics itself. any given expression will ALWAYS evaluate the same while the variables are the same.
Is mathematics an autonomous entity? I feel like that's kind of how you are portraying it. What you're suggesting seems really obvious if I'm understanding it correctly, basically amounting to the saying "it is what it is." I'm not sure I am following though.
In what format? According to what calendar? Which timezone? Do you use Longitude and Lattitude or GPS coordinates? Do we account for elevation? For all of these items, please explain why you require the information in that particular format. According to the calendar and timezone that was used when you were born. The same stuff you use to fill out your Social Security info is all that is needed. Longitude and lattitude are used. The location is needed because your Ascendent is where the sun is rising over the horizon at the moment of your birth. This dictates other areas of your chart. That your girlfriend uses? Why don't you use it? Why do you need software to do this? Aren't you an arcane practicer of magick and astrology? What does the software do that you don't? How does the software work? On what basis does it create the charts? What are the principles aligning the metrics you require and the charts produced? On what basis is there a physical connection between those metrics and the vagaries of my personality? The software literally prints out the chart. There's no fancy explanation to it other than that. She has been involved with astrology her whole life, including her family. That's why she has the software. I can give you the info to the software if you want more details. This doesn't prove anything, conmen, charlatans, and even just any random person can infer a lot about a person. Heck, just by guessing, you are statistically going to get about 50% of my personality metrics correct, if defined in binary format (which they always are): Introvert/Extrovert, Likes to explore/Likes to stay home, Likes romance/not interested in romance, etc. Just by guessing you will get half of these right. This is not proof of success. Even if you got 100% of them right, that would constitute an event of not terrible rarity, and would also represent a sample size of 1. We already have studies in which much larger sample sizes were used, and the effects purported to exist here were found to not exist. So this doesn't work. What's plan B? so you're already explaining it all away before even getting the reading? Do you want the reading or not? You're literally already sure of yourself that even if i were 100 percent correct on giving the reading, that it wouldn't be anything to do with the astrology, just to keep your ego in check. How does this make you different than the most fundamental Christian? Why would I see the descriptions this way? What could you do to change this? What could I do to change this? What if this occurs because the descriptions are in fact too general and vague, as is the very heart of the issue with the claims of astrology? There's not much one can do to break someone out of their stubbornness, as you are clearly illustrating right now. If I find the descriptions innacurate, would YOU then conclude that astrology is not real, based on this single sample size? No, because it applies very much to my life and i resonate with it. Plus, I already expect you to explain it all away anyway, which you are already showing. If your mindset was more open-minded and less biased, then you might actually take something out of it. And the fact is is that the more you get involved with astrology, the more specific that it gets. You keep referencing the "left and right brain" meme as though it were hard science; did you know it's been debunked? http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html Do you regularly check on the factual assumptions you carry to ensure your data and models are up to date? How is it that this fundamental fact of neurology and cognition has escaped you, and you continue to espouse something that is simply not true? Could it be that you lack intellectual rigor and any kind of training in scientific and logical thinking? Could it be that I'm really massively wasting my time by trying to play a fool's game? Could it be that you're asking a bunch of questions in order to avoid getting the astrology reading? Could it be that you hold Logic up to the same standards that Christians hold God up to? Yes, it very much could be.
I'm not literally asking for his social security number. I'm saying that he's making it way more complicated than it needs to be. I told him the info that is needed. The social security reference is to highlight that this doesn't need to be complicated. Is Writer asking these questions when filling out information at the bank? That's the point i'm making.
What then do you make of Godel's theorem? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-godels-theorem/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems