Edit: I accidentally refreshed the page and it offered alternative questions for ID validation, such as high school of graduation and SSN. But it’s still absurd to expect someone to even humor the premise of the prompt.

  • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    14·
    23 days ago

    This isn’t about whether the question is appropriate, I agree it isn’t. I’m just curious. While I’m not a believer, I do know what ‘type’ I supposedly fall in. Do most nonbelievers know their sign, or do they have no idea?

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zipEnglish
      8·
      23 days ago

      It probably relates to your age. When I grew up there were still newspapers (and dinosaurs) and you probably ran across a small horoscope section somewhere in there (especially on or near the comics page), so for me seeing the dates was virtually unavoidable. But I haven’t run across a random horoscope in over 20 years, so if you’re born after the millennium I’m sure it was much less prominent in your life.

    • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      91·
      23 days ago

      While the wording is stupid, and “astrological” indeed refers to the superstitious bullshit, the zodiacs are not a believer/non-believer thing, but based on an astronomical(!) constellation being at a particular position in the sky in the period of said zodiac. That said, however, and without checking, I am sure that this does not align with the dates assigned to the zodiacs at all anymore because the Earth wobbles on it’s orbit & also because the zodiac cycles could never possibly align precisely with a year on Earth, simply because the dates are fixed and don’t account for leap years (the ~0.25 day extra each year).

      Why did I make this point? Because it appears that in Europe at least, everyone knows their zodiac - I would be surprised if it’s any different in countries that use the same calendar.

      • KubeRoot@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        23 days ago

        I don’t think zodiac cycles need to account for leap years, since it’s the leap years that account for things to make dates align. If by wobble you mean something like the tilt of the axis of rotation changing, then yeah, that’d mess things up - otherwise, I think the constellations are basically just based on where the sun is, and this which direction your part of the earth is facing during the night. If I’m correct, then I suspect the zodiacs do still align, but the constellations will differ depending on your latitude…

        • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          23 days ago

          By saying wobble, I was referring to:

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession

          For identical reasons, the apparent position of the Sun relative to the backdrop of the stars at some seasonally fixed time slowly regresses a full 360° through all twelve traditional constellations of the zodiac, at the rate of about 50.3 seconds of arc per year, or 1 degree every 71.6 years.

          Re leap years: On second thought you might be correct about that one.

    • daggermoon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      23 days ago

      I don’t know what my zodiac sign is despite several people having told me. I never seem to remember. That’s how insignificant it is in my life.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      73·
      23 days ago

      Do most nonbelievers know their sign, or do they have no idea?

      In the very rare case where it comes up, I almost always have to look up the answer. Why would I have the signs and their date ranges memorized? This is like asking someone whose only tangentially heard of D&D to name his favorite first level spell.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        23 days ago

        Ah you must be a lion then, they are always so aloof.
        Just kidding, it’s nonsense and I don’t believe it one single bit…

        But ARE you a lion?

        If yes: I KNEW IT! It was so obvious!
        If no I’m x: Ah that explains why I mistook you for a Lion. X have many of the same traits.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      22 days ago

      I know mine because my personality is the stereotype of my sign. It’s just a coincidence, but it’s one that comes up from time to time

    • Kuma@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      23 days ago

      Yes, everyone around me knows (I think most like I saw it in a news letter), but most of us do not know what it actually means. Some just know a few things about their own sign because those attributes was told to them and actually fit. So it is more like a way to give compliments if someone who knows tells you “oh you are x, no wonder you are so great at y!”. So I have no negative feelings about it. I just don’t believe in it.

      The only attribut i know that isn’t for my own sign is that Scorpions are horny ppl, my Scorpion friends brag about that. I don’t know why.

      As a kid was it common to use it more like a group name just like some use the seasons like winter, summer, spring, autumn child. Many tv series, games and cartoons used it (not in a serious way). I actually bought as a kid the wrong sign from a glas smith and didn’t know it was wrong for many years, apparently it wasn’t even close to mine 😂