How Astrology is False

Moshe Ben-Chaim

How can we prove this claim? Let's grasp the difference between astrology and unexplained but true causes and effects:

Astrology has not demonstrated 100% or even a majority of times, any cause and effect relationship between astronomical phenomena and our personality traits; it's primary claim. Think a second; a correlation is "not" a demonstrated cause and effect. Meaning, if we find some percentage between people born in the spring and their wisdom or leadership personalities, this does not mean the "cause" of leadership is a spring birthdate. It is mere correlation. And many leaders like Newton were born in the winter and summer.

However, we do witness a demonstrated cause and effect relationship when large bodies attract smaller ones 100% of the time. Even without understanding gravity, we witness the effects of some force we call gravity. For we define a truth as that which is constant, and astrology is not constant, nor are its claims consistent a majority of the time. Thus, astrology offers no truths. The stars' locations and your personality traits are as unrelated, as is a splinter in your finger to a solar eclipse. As the splinter did not cause the eclipse, the stars have not given you personality traits.

When God told Abraham to abandon astrology, this does not mean it was a true science for the gentiles, but not for us. Many Jews suggest this, but the statement itself contradicts natural law. For if some law is true for gentiles, it is true for everyone. A truth is independent of followers. 

In fact, God rejects astrology (Jeremiah 10, 1-5):

"1. Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel; 2. Thus saith the LORD: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. 3. For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for it is but a tree which one cuts out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. 4. They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5. They are like a pillar in a garden of cucumbers, and speak not; they must certainly be carried for they cannot walk. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

God calls the nations' attribution of power to the stars, a vain thing. God continues to discredit decorated trees, for the idolaters used to believe trees would receive the imagined powers of the stars and constellations. Of such "received heavenly powers," God says, "Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good." God created the stars, and He tells us they are powerless. Astrology is a sham.

Proponents of idolatry ofer no rhyme or reason. They cannot explain why the heavenly phenomena effect man and not other creations, and why based on his birth date as opposed to another date; why it affects personality traits as opposed to hair color or height; why the stars target Earth-bound life and not the moon's soil or Saturn's rings…all pointing to an arbitrary "system." Therefore it is readily understood why astrology has been rejected by the scientific community[1]. Scientific testing of astrology has been conducted, and no evidence has been found to support any of the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions. As Philippe Zarka stated, and this is a crucial point: "One problem is that none of the presently known physical forces (or interactions) or of any reasonable extrapolation of them can explain the presumed astrological influence" … "It can be easily checked that astrological predictions are often wrong, or –worse– neither wrong nor right because [they are] too ambiguous." 

Zarka further explains astrology's popularity is due in part to "a psychological support to its believers, especially to “fragile” populations (unemployed, students, isolated people, etc) (Kunth & Zarka 2005; Zarka & Kunth 2006)."  

Based on these reasons, the intelligent person must dismiss astrology's claims.

[1]Zarka, Philippe (2011). "Astronomy and astrology". Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 5 (S260): 420–425.  http://bit.ly/119y8b3