Comparative essay: Astronomy vs. Astrology

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Until now, it has been carried out a series of distinctions between astrology and astronomy, what comes next will be a short description of each.

To begin with astrology, we must take into account that Astrology is the belief of those who claim to know and predict the fate of humans, predicting facts based on the "interpretation" of heaven. Currently, almost all the newspapers say serious, and not so serious, publish astrological sections, commonly known as "horoscopes" and what about the rise of television programs esoteric court. In bookstores in our country is much easier to get a copy of "Your destiny and the zodiac" a treaty of modern physics, a book of archeology or history. What mean the above statement? Some people do not agree with the designs of astrology, while others need something to believe in and decide to follow the paths of astrology, for this reason, the belief in these predictions is very personal, and this practice is very subjective.

“Fundamentally astrology is based on the position of the planets and the Sun relative to an imaginary band of the celestial sphere, called Zodiac. It is assumed that these positions influence our daily lives, or that has marked the destiny of life at birth. According to this discourse, individuals born under the sign Leo would be dominant, jealous and possessive, unlike those born under Capricorn where workers are supposed to, serious and responsible”. (Colorado, 2006).

Secondly, Astronomy is the science that studies the origin, development and composition of the stars, and the laws of motion in the universe. “Astronomy is one of the oldest human sciences as it is aware of its existence since the first civilizations (Babylonian, Egyptian, India, Phoenicia, China ...) began to populate the planet, around 4000 to. C. (makes, therefore, more than 5000 years.). Although the technique of these early peoples were available was not adequate for in-depth knowledge on this issue, as they still did not have telescopes that advancing technology would provide later, if they served to understand the dynamics of the main celestial bodies in the sky (the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the stars of the sky.)” (Villar, 2009).

Unlike astrology, astronomy is more objective, since it is a science. Astrology uses astronomy studies, in order to make their predictions.

In conclusion, these terms are often confused and often many people tend to think they have the same meaning because of the similarity between their names and both are strongly associated with the stars and planets. However both astronomy and astrology differ in various ways. Both astronomy and astrology played a major role in civilizations like the Maya, who came to develop systems to plan and plot the positions of the planets and thus try to predict future events depending on the movement of celestial bodies. The popularity of astrology began to decline when they appeared quite astronomical theories as heliocentrism, which caused him to lose all academic validity.

References

Colorado, J. (5 de junio de 2006). Asociación Salvadoreña de Astronomía.

Hidalgo, I. R. (2000). The Skeptical Inquirer.

Villar,