Astrology

[zippy2006]

The wise men used astrology to predict the birth of Jesus and to find him... this is not condemned in the Bible.
What are your feelings about astrology, and can it be used by Christians today?

Astrology is considered pseudoscience as a result of the Enlightenment, not as a result of Christianity. Christianity lived alongside astrology for a very long time with only minimal conflicts. (Christian views on astrology - Wikipedia)

Quid actually posted a thread on "Lunacy" in 2019 which confirms some astrological theories. It seems to me that our culture's adamant opposition to astrology is a bit faddish. Sure, astrology was and is wrong about all sorts of things, but it's not so different from our current focus on psychology, or genetics, or Darwinism, or the social sciences, or even the magical word, "Science," etc. All of these things have elements of truth to them that are overblown and pushed to the limits, and they all seek to impose deterministic patterns on human behavior via natural phenomena. We just have a different metaphysics and anthropology than the ancients did.

 

[Sketcher]

The wise men used astrology to predict the birth of Jesus and to find him... this is not condemned in the Bible.
What are your feelings about astrology, and can it be used by Christians today?

In St. Augustine's Confessions, he wrote a story that a friend from a wealthy family told him. This friend's father, and one of his wealthy friends were both into astrology, really into it. It came to pass that when the friend's mother was pregnant with him, a slave in the other household also became pregnant, and the two men decided to measure the distances between their houses, and send runners to the other house as soon as the babies were born. The babies were born the same day, and the runners met precisely in the middle. They would have therefore both had the same sign. However, St. Augustine's friend grew up with a comfortable life. The slave did not. Seems that our fates are tied up in other things.

 

[Tellyontellyon]

The babies were born the same day, and the runners met precisely in the middle.

Where you are born is also part of it apparently? If it had any affect our is more to do with personality than fate I reckon?

 

[Sketcher]

Where you are born is also part of it apparently? If it had any affect our is more to do with personality than fate I reckon?

They were both close enough that runners could be sent, and that it wouldn't have been an undue burden to talk frequently enough to set this up. I doubt that would give enough of a variance.