How to Spot Pseudoscience. Starring Astrology.

The world is full of people and organizations who will try to convince you that their cockamamie schemes are legitimate by giving them the false label of 'science'. This article is about the six criteria you must ask yourself when determining if something is a pseudoscience. Hopefully these guidelines can help you to better engage in informed conversations in the future and to know when you are being fed garbage in the name of science. I am using astrology simply as an example to expound on the criteria. However, the heart of this article is not to rail on astrology, it is to inform you about how to spot pseudoscience which is unfortunately found everywhere. If you can't spot pseudoscience, you will inevitably end up wasting a lot of your time and money. I doubt you wish to waste either.

Astrology is so easy to take a whack at in the name of science, that it is almost unfair. Even if in some alternate universe it did have some substance or meaning, it can certainly not be referred to as a science, which many claim it is. We could say something similar about religion. It obviously means a lot to many people. It dictates their behaviors and values, and because of it they believe strongly in things that cannot be proven. To clarify, just because something is not scientific does not mean that it should be labeled as stupid or meaningless. But it does mean that we should not confuse it with science.

In astrology, none of the predictions are measured by any valid scientific means. There is no instrument that detects, or survey that establishes whether or not every Gemini really DID have relationship problems in April or not. Astrology is never scientifically tested. It could get confused as a science at times, because astrologers talk about physics, angles and gravitational pull. Also, astrology is a reflection of astronomy since it is based on actual things going on the sky. However, astrology takes natural phenomenon, and attempts to say (here's the leap) that they reflect our emotions, life events etc.

Hey, maybe that is true! But unfortunately, the astrological community has failed to test this rigorously or scientifically. And so, astrology is not a science. Astrology has not shown itself effective in controlled experiments and is thus not scientifically valid.

Astrology makes predictions, which are similar to hypothesis. These predictions are about what will occur in the life of an individual or group. So, it is interesting to compare it to “the many ways that people can prevent their hypothesis from being genuinely scientific” as further evidence of why this paradigm fails to be scientific.

Pseudoscience Criteria#1: Offering an explanation for phenomena that have not been scientifically observed;

Because Mars is in retrograde, you may have a mood swing that causes you to lash out at your partner. But around the 12th, things will start looking up financially.

Let's face it, no independent party is scientifically observing whether or not this happens.

Pseudoscience Criteria#2: Postulating an entity that has no clearly defined identifying qualities;

Pseudoscience Criteria#3:Ensuring that any predictions are either vague, difficult to experimentally test, or unsurprising;

Astrology is famous for making statements and predictions that are vague, so that they could be interpreted in many ways. Thus it is never wrong.

You may face a challenging time at work in the middle of the month.

Who didn't face at least some minor challenge at work somewhere in the middle of the month this month?

Pseudoscience Criteria#4: Postulating an entity so contradictory against established scientific knowledge that experimental testing is impossible;

Astrology says that because of some natural phenomenon, some emotional or situational consequences that are seemingly unrelated will occur. For example, because Saturn has a strong gravitational field right now, all of the Sagittarius people will not return phone calls. This is against everything that we understand to be true in science, and there is no way to test it. Even if we could prove that Sagittarius people were slacking on phone calls, it is impossible to test whether or not this is because of Saturn’s gravitational field. There is no instrument that tests this, and that's a warning sign!

If things are different in 1,000 years, then maybe we will have that instrument and this could be scientifically valid. But for now, it is so against the body of knowledge in the scientific community, that it is impossibly far off. And so, all we can say is that we cannot prove that it is not true, simply because it is too far out and ridiculous. This is something that esoteric fans like to harp on, 'Well, you can't prove it wrong.'

It is difficult to prove something wrong when we cannot even begin to prove it right. Pseudoscience Criteria#5: Ignoring any prediction that turns out to be false;

Astrology takes no accountability for any prediction that turns out to be false. Astrology fans can always say that the person failed to interpret properly, for one thing. Secondly, inherently speaking astrology does not perform valid control studies, so they are never responsible for whether or not their predictions are accurate. There is no follow up to see if Gemini across the world had that predicted lovers quarrel on the 14th.

Pseudoscience Criteria#6: Modifying the hypothesis just enough to be able to afterwards "predict" a bad experimental result.

Since most of the predictions in astrology are vague to the point that they can be interpreted, one can always backtrack afterwards and say that the astrologer made some sort of mistake in the chart, or that the person has a wrong understanding of their sign, or that the horoscope was interpreted wrongly etc.

Astrology is not a science by any stretch of the imagination. But please, keep in mind the six pseudoscience spotting criteria above, and apply them the next time that you are checking out your favorite anti-vac website or buying yourself some healing crystals. The crystals probably aren't going to hurt you, but if you think they are a legitimate alternative to chemo therapy, they certainly will. So, protect yourself and check yourself by remembering the six criteria for pseudoscience!