Please solve the following questions. This is not an assignment, it will not be graded, and you do not need to submit your solutions to anyone. The questions are simply intended to help you practice for the exam.

These questions will not appear in the exam itself. Students who don't genuinely attempt to solve the questions on their own, and only memorize the solutions, will have a very hard time in the actual exam!

These questions are not multiple-choice, to encourage you to think of the answers on your own, but the questions in the actual exam will be multiple-choice.

If you need any clarifications for these questions, you can ask for them on the course Teams channel.

Question 1 Show/hide solution

Which ancient culture is thought to be the first to associate gods with celestial bodies?

Solution: The Sumerians, as far as we know.

Question 2 Show/hide solution

Who was the Mesopotamian god of the Sun?

Solution: Shamash.

Question 3 Show/hide solution

Which day of the week is the planet Mercury associated with?

Solution: Wednesday.

Question 4 Show/hide solution

Do the celestial bodies influence our lives? If so, which ones, and how?

Solution: Yes: We wouldn't be alive without the Sun, and it also controls the seasons. The Moon influences the tides. However, the planets do not have any influence on us, and none of these celestial bodies have any influence on our personality or fortune.

Question 5 Show/hide solution

What were the two methods used to interpret astronomical events in Babylonian astrology?

Solution: Abstract association of ideas, and finding correlations between events (falsely assuming that correlation implies causation).

Question 6 Show/hide solution

Which ancient book forms the basis of modern astrology? Who wrote it, and when?

Solution: Tetrabiblos, written by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE.

Question 7 Show/hide solution

"Your zodiac sign is the constellation where the Sun was when you were born." True or false?

Solution: False. Due to axial precession, the signs shifted one sign to the west. For example, if you were born between November 23rd and December 21st, your Sun sign is considered to be Sagittarius, even though the Sun was actually at the constellation Scorpio that day.

Question 8 Show/hide solution

List 4 different arguments against astrology.

Solution: 1. Astrology is based on a geocentric model, where the Earth is at the center of the solar system and all the celestial bodies move around it, which we now know to be incorrect. 2. Astrology provides no mechanism of action for how a person's sign influences their personality, while science provides concrete mechanisms of action for how genetics and the environment influence personality. 3. Twins born minutes apart can have different personalities, even though the positions of the celestial bodies at the moment of their birth were the same. 4. There have been dozens of studies directly testing astrology, and in all of them, it turned out that the predictions of astrology were no better than just random guesses.

Question 9 Show/hide solution

What is the reason horoscopes often seem to apply to you personally?

Solution: They are vague enough that they can apply to most people, regardless of their actual sign. This is called the Barnum effect, and is an example of a cognitive bias that people need to be aware of and avoid.

Question 10 Show/hide solution

Can you think of an example of confirmation bias other than the ones given in the lecture?

Solution: One example happens in social media all the time. People tend to share posts or articles that support their beliefs and ignore posts that challenge their beliefs. This is actually made worse by social media algorithms that notice this trend and simply stop showing users anything that contradicts their beliefs in the first place.

Question 11 Show/hide solution

Can you think of an example of the appeal to false authority fallacy other than the ones given in the lecture?

Solution: One example is alternative medicine. Practitioners of alternative medicine usually do not have any training in evidence-based medicine; instead, they rely on pseudo-scientific beliefs such as naturopathy or homeopathy, which have been disproven in many experiments, and do not provide a correct description of how the human body works. However, millions of people still consider these practitioners to be an authority on medicine, and listen to them when making important decisions such as whether or not to get vaccinated.

Question 12 Show/hide solution

What are the main differences between astronomy and astrology?

Solution: Astronomy is a science, which means that it employs the scientific method: astronomers develop hypotheses about how the universe works, and test their predictions. If enough evidence matches the predictions, the hypothesis is eventually accepted as a theory. If later the theory no longer matches the evidence, astronomers replace it with a better theory. Astrology is pseudo-science, which means that it claims to be a science but does not employ the scientific method. Astrologers never test their hypotheses, and if evidence is found against a hypothesis, they keep using it anyway.

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