This time, Plait did back off his rather sarcastic attack on astrology from his last appearance on C2C, admitting it won't matter much to us after all. In fact he was quite generous this time around. I suspect the original comment was probably just a moment of poor judgment on his part, an off-the-cuff comment that didn't come out quite as clever or funny as he imagined.
He hasn't backed off on being a skeptic, and nor would I expect or hope for that. Honestly, I'm not interested in convincing skeptics that what I believe is true. If you are either a skeptic or a believer, there is only one way to decide for yourself if astrology has merit. Test it out for yourself. Read the evidence on both sides for yourself. Remember that both sides have sponsored biased research with a pre-determined position in mind. Find out what astrologers actually believe and claim (especially if you plan to denounce those beliefs in public). Remember that we are not a unanimous, homogenous group. Some of us are pretty conservative, others kind of wild.
As for me, I think I am in the conservative group. I have seen many irresponsable claims by fellow astrologers. I understand the passion of the skeptics towards the "wild side" of astrology, and share it to some degree (though out of different motivations). For example, I do not claim to be able to predict the future. I believe astrology is useful for forecasting trends, highlighting possibilities. But the future is always fluid to some degree, and this needs to be better understood by students of astrology. In a future blog entry, I will explain the difference between prediction and forecasting. But for now, I am just glad that the astronomical tempest in a teapot is finally over ... though I will predict this is not the last we've heard of it in the end
Brandi
