Article from Times Of India Pune Mirror on Astrology

October 6, 2008

Hello Members,

This Article is Published on Today's Times Of India " Pune Mirror" issue

50% INCORRECT Sadhe Saati Verdict's Out!

Astrology and Random Samples Yield The same results.

Looks like testing time lie ahead for Astrologers. In the First Phase of a Statistical test meant to prove if astrology can be termed as science, only about 50 percent of the predictions made by astrologers turned out to be correct. The test, was conducted by Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA, Pune University an Andhashradhha Nirmulan Samiti (ANS) and the verdict is that Astrology cannot be termed as Science.

IT'LL BE OFFICIAL SOON

Renowned scientist Dr. Jayant Naralikar will formally announce the results of the test in a press conference on October 7. he along with Dr. Narendra Dabholkar of ANS, professor Sudhakar Kunte from the University of Pune, will also declare the statistical data related to the test.

Naralikar had appealed to astrologers to come forward and participate in the experiment staing We have kept an open approach without any bias". The announcement received with much debate and scepticism. Many Astrology Organizations condemned the initiative under some pretext or the other, but Astrologers in maharashtra and Vidharba responded to the project

HOW ASTROLEGERS WERE PUT TO TEST

The Participants of the test were provided a set of about 40 Horoscopes of students. Some of them were mentally challenged while others were normal. But their identities were not revealed to the participants. Astrologers were tod to analyse the samples and tell exactly which students were mentaly challenged and which were not.

An Important presumption of the text was that if astrologers manage to differentiate the horoscopes with an acuracy of more than 90%, astrology would be proved as a science. If they could reach the accuracy of 70%, then further tests would have carried out. About 50% accuracy was as good as results of random sampling,and therefore astrology couldn't be reliable enough to be termed as Science.

Prakash Ghatpande, Convenor ofthe test, said "major astrologers decided to boycott the test objecting to ANS's Stance. A majority of amateur astrlogers decided to participate in the experiment and they relied on the data provided by us.

ANS activists collected horoscopes from all over the state. We gave them to the participants. After their replies were received, the enryption was done and thereafter all the data rested with Prof.Kunte. Nobody else, not even Dr. Naralikar and Dr. Dabholkar, are aware of the exact details. We can't declare the exact statistics of the experiment right now".

HERE'S MORE TO COME

ON THE RESULTS OF THE TEST, DABHOLKAR SAID,"i AM AWARE ABOUT THE OUTCOME OF THE TEST. BUT AS WE HAVE FIXED PRESS CONFERENCE, I CANNOT SPEAK ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW. YOU WILL KNOW THE DETAILS IN DUE TIME".

We can wait see till tomorrow for the statistical data to come out.

Can anyone challenge Dr.Naralikar and ANS?

Regards,

Harish