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‘The World’s Most Respected Astrologer’ Jonathan Cainer spouts ignorance in this month’s edition of ‘Reveal’ (picture by author) |
Above is a picture I took (apologies for the poor quality) of astrologer and charlatan Jonathan Cainer’s contribution to ensuring that the general public, and in this case readers of the UK woman’s magazine ‘Reveal’, remain startlingly ignorant in regards to the scientific and objective reality of our existence. Here is a man, who it is claimed has 7 million readers (evidence pending, naturally), postulating on the causes on one of the most destructive natural disasters in recent times in such a unbelievably ridiculous way that I was unsure as to whether I had finally succumbed to the influence of the ‘supermoon’ and had delved uncontrollably into the blackened void of insanity.
As his editorial descends into the inarticulate, ridiculous and absurd Mr Cainer mentions the opposition of Saturn and Jupiter and the ‘T-sqaure’ that ‘formed in’ Pluto. To analyse the affect on the tiny gravitational field gradient between the Earth and these planets, please refer to the link to UC Berkeley. Pluto is not mentioned as everybody is now aware that it is no longer a planet, but rather a dwarf planet within the minor planet category, along with Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris. There are also a further 269,644 minor planets, all outlined here, so to suggest that one of these bodies would have any affect on what is already a very weak gravitational gradient is patently absurd.
Just to top everything off, ‘The World’s Most Respected Astrologer’ finishes with a snide comment regarding our ‘dangerous addition’ to nuclear ‘fuel’, despite the exemplary performance of the Fukushima nuclear plant in the wake of a natural disaster well outside of its design and engineering limit.
I think that this article is perhaps one of the more upsetting examples of of this kind of pseudo-scientific astrological mumbo-jumbo. Instead of preying on his normal victims, including the grieving, naive, destitute and desperate, Mr Cainer has turned his unfocussed attention to the science regarding the dynamics of our planet, and has chosen an insensitive and offensive time to do it. Just out of shot to the left in the picture above is an image of a woman sat on the ground, sobbing amongst the wreckage of her home and country. She doesn’t need an explanation of the disaster that has cost the lives of tens of thousands, especially not one that is written in the stars or caused by Pluto and postulated by an ignorant man in a weekly magazine. This is a man who knowingly profiteers on the naivety of the unquestioning and scientifically illiterate populace of our country, who for some reason look to him to provide them with answers to the unanswerable and solutions to the unpredictability and indifference of the universe. Statistics dictate that no matter what unfounded rubbish he chooses to spout this week, with an apparent readership of 7 million, at least some of it will prove to be true for a few people, and if he keeps it ambiguous and vague enough the number of happy customers seeking order amongst the chaos increases further still. Perhaps because science cannot provide all the answers yet, and makes no claims to the contrary, people desperate for assurance or guidance in the face of unrelenting unfairness turn to astrology, like grasping at straws in the sea of the unknown. I would remain very sceptical of any individual who claimed that they could provide solutions to the stochasticity of our existence, especially if those answers are based on lies spun out weekly for profit.