Re: OT: the Monkey Year (wasRe: Religion and Holidays)

MJR> How, exactly, does it constitute *more* common sense to maintain that the
MJR> positions of stars many light-years away are actually relevant to the
MJR> goings-on here, rather than just a convenient reference point? :)

AJ> That the constellations actually have physical existence?

In what sense?  You're talking about essentially randomly-selected stars
at greatly-varying distances from Earth which happened to look like they
made a particular pattern to some ancient Mesopotamian type.  That's a
pretty far stretch for "physical existence". :)

Anyway, the argument of both astrologies is the same: it is the position of the
Sun and the planets at the moment of your birth which is important.  They
only differ in how they measure that position.  Western astrology uses
celestial longitude, which is - purely for convenience - broken up into
30-degree chunks named after constellations which historically occupied those
chunks.  Hindu astrology, on the other hand, uses the position relative
to the actual constellations.  In other words, it boils down to using
tropical vs.  sidereal time.

MJR> Why do you think They created us with ten each of fingers and toes?

AJ> To make us realize the cosmic importance of 1024.

Nah, I think it's 36 which is the important number.

-Mark

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