Reason vs superstition:

To believe or not to believe?

by Aditha Dissanayake

What career should I choose? How can I make money? Should I travel? Who should I marry? When?

How can you unravel the great mystery that is your life? Will it help if you let the planets influence you; if you believe black cats portend disasters; certain days are propitious and certain numbers are to be avoided?

Why not?

After all even Carl Jung, one of the 20th century's greatest thinkers, is said to have used astrological birth charts to help understand his psychotherapy patients because he believed "Astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity."

After all they say Astrology is not something that "works if you believe in it." It works regardless of whether or not you believe in it!!

Here are some extracts from the forecasts on the movements of the stars, found on the pages of newspapers and magazines.

"Whatever you want, you will get them. It's that kind of time, so just go with the flow and enjoy it! You will be working away, achieving the type of results you expect, so don't forget to have some fun to reward yourself!

Life seems a bit complicated right now, and perhaps it is, but you also do have a tendency to overcomplicate matters. Usually, you're on the sidelines observing others, but this time you will be in the middle of all the action. Start getting used to it.

Your optimism and patience will bring you good news concerning important matters. Your hard work will finally pay off, but you are not totally there yet. Keep up the good work, you're almost there!"

Would you really let these predictions to be your guide? Would you let your horoscope be a map that will bring you much success and happiness if you follow its directions?

"I would" jests twenty six year old Sandeepa Bandara. "If they would give predictions like "between now and next Tuesday trust any one with pimples. After that, trust no one, or today is an excellent day for a bath".

Humour apart, he says It's fun to read the forecasts in newspapers and magazines. But no, he never acts according to the advice they give. Shelani Pathirana agrees but consents she likes to read them and see if the predictions come true.

Spinning wheel

"I just read it on weekends to see what is written as what the week will bring. And much of the time, I forget what I've read, as soon as I turn the page." Nalin too says horoscopes don't rule his life and elaborates "did you know that what they really have is a big giant spinning wheel with different quotes on it and they say "Let's spin for a quote for Scorpio", they spin and that's what is put in the magazine, newspaper or whatever." Besides, he adds whatever has to happen is going to happen. Why know before hand and worry.

"But good ones can give guidelines, and thus be helpful." Says Sumudu. "Sometimes if my Horoscope says I might lose my temper I resolve to be patient and get through the day better than I would have if I had not had this warning. Her friend, Kanchuka agrees.

"Yes I am a firm believer in horoscopes and astrology." She says. " This may sound funny, but I have noticed that things very much go along as charted out by Fate or the stars. We were born at a particular time for a reason."

What we need

Meanwhile, astrologers say there is no way that you will escape the force of the stars. "Life means choices. If you always choose the safe and easy paths, sooner or later the universe is going to force you out of your comfort zone and help you grow in experience and wisdom. Let's take a look at a person who stays in his boring and predictable job for 21 years because he's afraid of trying something new.

All of a sudden transiting Uranus comes along and crosses his Ascendant, or goes into his 10th house of career, and he gets downsized and loses his job. Is this "bad" or is it "good," because bigger and better opportunties are just around the corner? Life usually gives us what we need, not what we want!"

So, if you do believe in horoscopes, superstition and plain old luck you can find comfort in British scientist Lewis Wolpert's new book "Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast" in which he writes the belief engine of human beings works on wholly unscientific principles. "It prefers quick decisions, it is bad with numbers, loves representativeness and sees patterns where there is only randomness. It is too often influenced by authority and it has a liking for mysticism".

Horseshoe

If you too have got certain ideas or beliefs wedged in your mind, whether they are good for you or not, remember even the Nobel-prizewinning physicist, Niels Bohr, had a horseshoe nailed to his wall.

It was not because he believed it would bring him good luck, but because he's been told it would do so even if he didn't believe it. "How can you argue with such logic?" asks Bohr.

Yes, because today my own horoscope said I will answer questions. I mean isn't that just so silly. I never answer questions in my articles...oh, wait... Perhaps what the White Queen explains to Alice in Lewis Caroll's Through the Looking Glass is true after all. Believing in impossible things is just a matter of practice. Whether this is true or not the bottom line is, in some things reason will never triumph over superstition. And, mysticism, whatever form it may take, will survive - because it brings enormous comfort to life.

****

Dr. Abraham Kovoor and rational thinking

For each person who is fascinated by mysticism which includes Albert Einstein who said "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science", there is also someone who believes only in reason and scientific verification. One such was Dr. Abraham T. Kovoor.

A free thinker, rationalist and psychiatrist, from Kerala, South India who later spent his life in Sri Lanka, after intensive scientific research covering over half a century, Dr. Kovoor came to the conclusion that there is absolutely no objective truth behind claims and beliefs in all types of alleged psychic, para-psychological and spiritual phenomena.

To prove his point he once asked astrologers to calculate the most unsuitable time to build a house and denouncing the norm of adhering to auspicious times even when building a toilet, built and lived in a house constructed at an inauspicious time.

Aiming to enlighten people and make them live by reason and scientific verification Dr. Kovoor said "He who does not allow his miracles to be investigated is a crook, he who does not have the courage to investigate a miracle is gullible, and he who is prepared to believe without verification is a fool".