You Gotta' Have Faith...

       Faith has played an extremely important role in society. Sometimes it has been misplaced and caused some horrific things to happen, sometimes it leads to positive activity. What people place their faith in defines various aspects of who they are. This isn’t limited to religious faith either. Faith is defined as a strong belief in something, so when someone acts upon a belief it can be considered an act of faith. So how should we decide what to place our faith in?
        Most people just wing it and pick things up as they go. Whether it be beliefs instilled in us by people we come in contact with, something we read, see, or hear, or some time spent pondering on the mechanics of the universe, we develop faith in different things. Now I don’t want to get into a deep metaphysical  post here, I just want to address some things people have faith in which just seems…strange.
        I guess the first thing I should talk about is the reason I started writing this post: astrology. I know someone who believes in this stuff. The type of person who will wait for you to do something and say “You are such a leo,” because you did whatever it was you did. The only time I have given astrology any importance was while watching an anime titled Caballeros del Zodiaco in Ecuador (its name in English is Saint Seiya). I just wanted the character which shared my zodiac sign to be cool (which he was). Seeing someone take this seriously though had me asking, how does someone begin to place faith in astrology? I believe it has to do with two factors. The first, you can attribute to Carl Sagan. It stems from a lack of scientific education and the skepticism scientific education entails. Astrology was a pseudoscience which was developed mostly during the early childhood of science. It was used to explain things which didn’t seem to have an explanation. This seems to be the root of its survival. Someone is having a bad day, they can pawn it off to bad luck, study psychology, or quantum mechanics, or they can say a planet is in a position which caused their bad day. Now this is only part of it, because why would you choose to believe this is the reason for what is occurring?
        The second part seems to be a matter of comfort. It seems much more comfortable to believe you can predict or explain why something is happening. The unpredictable scares most people. This may be partially because of evolution; animals usually do not like being in a situation which they cannot predict. Now someone might respond that if this were true, why don’t they look for a scientific explanation instead of these other explanations? Well, science has been made to appear intimidating and boring, while pseudosciences are fantastical and interesting. Many people would rather believe in something exotic, than in something nerdy.
        So those could be the reasons why someone believes in things like astrology, but I feel the need to ask, is it a good thing? I believe it depends on how far someone takes it. To many, believing in all this is foolish, but opinions aren’t a valid argument against it. In my opinion, these beliefs are only really an issue when they hurt the person who believes them, or they hurt people around them. If one person does something inappropriate to another person, and that person uses their zodiac sign as an explanation for why they did it, it’s a problem. Another example would be someone who uses pseudoscientific remedies for their health or for financial issues, like using healing crystals when you feel sick. When these beliefs begin to harm people, they become a problem.
        Luckily, this doesn’t happen on a large scale, at least not on a scale as large as what religious faith has caused. I still believe people should rely more on the tangible, introspection, and information based on facts to create a base for what to place their faith in, but people are allowed to do as they please. If you do want some good information on all of this though, pick up Carl Sagan’s The Demon Haunted World, and read up on the Forer Effect. If you want to continue believing in what you believe in, just pawn this writing off to me being a Capricorn or me being born in the year of the Rabbit or whatever makes you happy.

- Dennis