Part 2: What if astrology WERE true?

Astrologers always seem to think they are on the cusp of the great day when the dominant paradigm is dramatically over-turned, science accepts that astrology has been proven, and the New Age dawns…

But would astrologers really like the changes that would be likely to follow?

Following on from Part 1, and from recent discussions where skeptics have been kindly encouraging astrologers to raise their standards, I offer this speculation on what would happen if astrology suddenly started returning positive results from properly conducted experiments.

Part 1: Why do astrologers even want to test astrology?

Following discussions over at Richard Rockley’s Skeptico and Jason Thibeault’s Lazy Canuck blogs, I want to look a bit more closely at astrology. Both those guys have done a first-rate job of explaining flaws in the arguments of numerous astrologers. I want to look at a few other issues surrounding astrology’s claims to legitimacy.

I’ll briefly consider why astrologers want to test astrology, and how they go about it, and then look later at the implications for astrologers (not scientists) if  astrology were suddenly to be vindicated. I’ll break it up into two parts.