Author:
Publication: The Week
Date: June 24, 2001
Mainstream science does not accept
astrology as science, says astrophysicist Rajesh Kochhar. "The methodology
of science is more important than the results. Scientific theories are
not based on provability but on falsiability," he says, quoting Karl Popper's
theory of falsiability in verification of a scientific proposition.
For instance, if one makes a prediction
and if it does not come true it is false. But when the prediction of a
theory comes true, it does not prove that the theory is right. There is
no guarantee that the next prediction will come true. So if astrology is
to qualify as a science it must lay down a criterion of falsiability.
Kochhar, who wrote the book Vedic
People, says the astrology we have today is not Vedic and hence there is
no question of teaching Vedic astrology (as planned by the University Grants
Commission). "It is post-Varahamihira and based on Siddhantic astronomy.
Vedic astronomy did not have zodiacal signs," says Kochhar. "Teaching astrology
is different. You can certainly teach astrology if you can teach Sanskrit."
