India made a huge mistake the other day when, in response to a lawsuit, Bombay’s highest court decided that astrology is a science. Yeeeeeeeaaah.
India’s Bombay High Court has ruled that astrology (which took a recent and very public drubbing after an astronomer pointed out that astrological signs have changed over millennia) is not merely a harmless diversion but instead a science, presumably on par with biology, astronomy and physics.
The case involved a lawsuit brought by Janhit Manch, a non-governmental consumer watchdog group that complained that ads for psychics and astrologers were illegal under India’s Drugs and Magical Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, which prohibits false advertising. The group of skeptics urged Indian officials to ban all literature promoting astrology, feng shui, Tarot card reading, palm reading, Reiki and other popular but scientifically unproven practices.
In its decision the High Court cited testimony from a government deputy drug controller named Dr. Ramakrishna, who stated that the Act did not apply to astrology: “The said Act is aimed at prohibiting misleading advertisements relating to drugs and magic remedies. The Act does not cover and/or relate to astrology and/or allied sciences like Palmistry. … In view thereof, a purported ban on practices promoting astrology and related sciences sought by the petitioner, which is a time-tested science more than 4,000 years old, is totally misconceived and unjustifiable.”
So…by allied sciences, they mean the fake impossible pseudosciences that have nothing to do with science, right? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. :/ But take heart! It would seem that this legal ruling isn’t having that much of an effect on those in India who matter. You know…those scientist guys:
The High Court’s legal ruling, of course, carries no weight with scientists, who have uniformly and soundly rejected astrology as a pseudoscience.
Good to hear.
