Reason Vs Faith -1
Dr. Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
M.Sc.,
Ph. D
Retired
Principal
GUDIVADA- A.P
yernenivrao@gmail.comh.
Rational
analysis is long on hindsight and short on foresight. But because of its
evident successes in explaining the past and clarifying the known through post
facto analysis, its victories in explaining the future and illumining the
unknown are taken for granted. People often forget that what rational thinking
does is, it opens up the flood gates of future possibilities of which one
materializes, but which one, none knows, until after the event. Mistaking this
surfeit of information for knowledge, they tend to assume that thye have become
wiser through rational approach, when, in fact, they have merely moved from one
level of ignorance to another, and a more confusing one at that. Its soft underbelly being thus overlooked/covered
up , it marches on triumphantly, gathering newer adherents by the hour citing
the marvels of science and technology as proof positive of its omnipotence and
appears to bring into its embrace life itself making us forget for a moment
that life is the greatest mystery transcending not only rationality but all
known forms of cognition put together, thus giving rise to the emergence of
pseudo messiahs and false prophets of this ism and that ideology—failed Gods
all.
Ironically
astrology , decried as superstition, branded as a lot of baloney, pooh-poohed
as hocus pocus, and dismissed as so much hot air by the rationalists derives
its credentials more or less on/from the same or similar grounds as rationality
but based on cleverly fabricated facts and prognostications in the garb of the results
of a pseudo scientific analysis, and victoriously marches ahead on a parallel
course laying claim to the secrets of life and luring ever more hordes/herds of
people into its fold.
The astrologers, of course , return the
compliment in no less a vitriolic and vituperative language, and that too in a
tone of matching rancour and recrimination so the conflict and confrontation
between the two go on unabated.
The conflict owes its origin to the
contrasting nature of their basic premises and their methods and purposes.
While one is a system of belief based on the power of human intellect , the
other reposes its faith in the influence of the movements and relative
combinations of celestial bodies on human and worldly affairs.
The confrontation becomes all the more
transparent when we examine their modi operandi and their ends also in some
detail. Rationalists mostly rely on rationality’s inherent but self evident
strength or power of explaining brilliantly certain aspects of reality in the
light of reason and not authority to score points in the domain of its validity
where it is the supreme monarch where as astrologers depend for astrology’s
validation and (their) survival on the credulity of the untutored minds fired
up by a burning desire to have a peep into their future in the hope of finding
some quick fix solutions to present problems and short cuts to future
successes and their own inexhaustible
inventiveness and incredible resourcefulness to come out winners even in the
most trying circumstances , rather than any inherent strength of their
‘discipline’.
Taking the second of this sparring duo first
for consideration, one of the tricks of the trade routinely played by the
astrologers is the subterfuge of cleverly reconstructing past events from bits
and pieces of information unconsciously furnished , of course, under their
subtle psychological prodding, by their credulous clients and then presenting
the accounts so fabricated with a flourish as proof of astrology’s supernatural
powers, thereby fortifying its credibility further. Having thus posited it on a
seemingly unassailable foundation, they start spewing out predictions cloaked
in a lot of obscurity and haziness by meticulously melding their clients’ hopes
for and fears about the future in the crucible of their own fertile imagination
and abundant common sense. That they are no more than what their clients want
to hear most about themselves and their future is another matter.
All this becomes clear as day when one
remembers the type of people seeking their services and considers the
psychological state of their minds; it is mostly those that are victims of
unforeseen calamities or a rash of unnerving adversities or a run of bad luck
with no apparent sin or wrong to account fro their predicament or those others
that have struck gold or found themselves on cloud nine when they least
expected it and had no known merit to deserve the windfall, that make a beeline
for the astrologers, the former with worries and despair writ large on their
faces and anxious to learn whether and how soon it all will go away , and the
latter in a state of jubilance and with great expectations about more of the
same and eager to know how long will this lucky streak last and how to turn it
into a permanent feature of their lives.
Another cunning device often taken recourse
to in astrology to ensure its infallibility is to couch its predictions not in
clear and precise language but in such omnibus words, ambiguous terms ,
catch-all-phrases and equivocal expressions as are capable of yielding any
meaning that one wants to read into them to fit the facts of any subsequent
actual occurrence. Like ‘The Seven Layers of Ambiguity’, there can be
innumerable connotations to each such prediction wrapped as it is in vague
generalizations and hidden contradictions for, it should readily lend itself to
diverse interpretations so much so that people see in it what they are looking
for. They thus ensure that their cryptic please-all prognostications seldom
fail to satisfy their clients. And in the last resort like Mr Humpty Dumpty in Alice
If everything fails to prop up the collapsing
superstructure they have so assiduously built, they fall back on the age old
refrain that “the stars only impel, they do not compel” implying that cosmic
influences can be overcome by one’s free will—a simple confession that
astrology is a ‘science’ which holds up when the astrologers deem it
convenient.
Either alone or a combination of some or all
of them together can be counted on to work wonders anywhere in the world, and
more so in societies like ours with unconscionably high expectations and
abysmally low performance and achievement.
Finally, a word or two about astrology’s
fundamental basis will be in order here. Of the nine astrological planets, moon
is a satellite of the earth and the sun , the star around which the nine
genuine planets revolve in well defined orbits instead of it being a planet
going round the earth while Rahu and Kethu are mere shadows, rather than real
planets, and the planets Uranus , Neptune and Pluto do not figure anywhere in
astrological calculations; the zodiac and the 12 constellations Aries though
Pisces are but figments of human imagination. And the belief that the natal
positions and combinations of ‘these planets’ with reference to ‘this stellar
screen’ as they appear to creep across it tells all about the child’s future is
the basic premise on which astrology is founded. How can such a
mishmash/melange of fact and fiction , lies and half truths ever yield anything
meaningful about the affairs of man and/or the world? Nothing at all as any
sound mind would say, not out of levity but in all seriousness. To view
otherwise is wishful thinking, pure and simple, avers the realist. And rightly
so.
( to be continued )
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