My Birthday

I was born on March 2, 1965. Why am I devoting an entry to such a trivial detail instead of including it in my profile? Because for some unfathomable reason Blogger sees fit to automatically list astrological information for anyone choosing to enter their birth date. While just listing one's sign would be bad enough, listing the zodiac year qualifies as an implicit endorsement of astrology. Since one of the main themes of this blog is going to be railing against the kind of faulty thinking that allows people to believe in ludicrous notions like astrology, allowing my sign to appear in my profile would seriously undermine its purpose.

It's hard to understand why Blogger would make such an inane decision. Why I believe astrology is nonsense is irrelevant; the fact remains that I do. If I knew enough about the alternatives I'd probably move my blog. There are many more users who feel the same way I do. When you throw in the religious users who believe fortune telling is a sin; Blogger is offending a large portion of its users.

The alternative of only including astrological information if the user chose to do so would have been a much more sensible solution. There's no need to tie it to the birthdate field; anyone who wants their sign included isn't going to need Blogger to automatically determine it for them. This would be a solution that wouldn't unnecessarily offend anyone. It's not like believers in astrology are going to yell persecution if they can't force everyone to participate.