Why Reading Your Horoscope is Bad For You

The new wave on Facebook and Internet these days are Apps that Predict the Future.  The Israeli digital visionary Eyal Gever describes a machine that would give everyone a ‘Crystal Ball’. “My idea to change the world is a crystal ball app - a machine that would help us predict the future. If you dropped all of the world's data into a black box, it could become a crystal ball that would let you see the future. When knowledge becomes a network, all is possible.  Imagine what happens to knowledge when very smart algorithms that grasp humanity analyze that content and visualize the data. You could explore the past, present and prospective future of almost anything in a matter of seconds". Can you Imagine that?

Having a super tool that can help us understand relationships between entities and events over time, that can foresee what may happen in the future and advise us on taking the best decision - even test what would happen if you chose option A over option B.

As Macbeth asked the witches - If you can look into the seeds of time and say, which grain will grow, and which will not, speak then to me.”

How the Prediction Applications Work

There are lots of funny Applications that work by integrating your Facebook account. These applications collect sensitive information from your Facebook account like your Date of Birth, your List of Friends, your pattern of life, pattern of thought, what you love, your religion and belief system through your Facebook posts, pages you LIKE or FOLLOW on Facebook.  By integrating these information, using the Zodiac Signs, Horoscope and Astrology prediction methods, they could therefore predict your future.

Some of the popular predictions they make centre on various areas of life questions like:

·         For What You Will Be Always Remembered?

·         Profession Suits You By Birth?

·         See What Your Name Means

·         Why People Likes You?

·         What Kind Of Best Friend You Are?

·         When And Why You Will Die?

·         Why Are You Still Single?

·         What Hidden Qualities Are In You?

·         How Many Proposals You Will Get Soon?

·         Who & Where You Will Meet Your True Love?

·         Find When Will You Marry

·         Your After Marriage Prediction

·         How Many Babies You Will Have?

Why reading your horoscope is bad for you:

People who believe in star signs are more likely to be impulsive instead of virtuous.  If the horoscope and prediction Apps are your favourite page in the newspaper or internet, then beware: The Zodiac is more than just a harmless pastime. People who follow their stars are more likely to abandon their commitments and be self-indulgent if they're predicted to have a bad day, a study found. It is because believers are convinced they cannot change their fate so get tempted to drop their plans, while people who don't set any store by their stars carry on as normal.

Superstition: Believing in fate makes people more likely to be self-indulgent when they are given a 'bad' reading.  The study by Johns Hopkins University and the University of South Carolina gave people a pessimistic horoscope, then asked them to choose between going to a party or cleaning the house.

People who had said they believed in horoscopes were more likely to choose the party, while others chose the 'virtuous' option of cleaning up.  'Human nature drives us to believe in our own fate,' said the authors of the study, Hyeongmin Kim, Katina Kulow and Thomas Kramer.

Most people regard horoscopes as harmless fun, but millions still turn to them every day.  Given the prevalence of horoscopes in Western cultures, we looked at the influence one’s horoscope might have on the decisions that person makes.

'Conventional wisdom might suggest that for people who believe they can change their fate, an unfavorable horoscope should result in an attempt to improve their fate.  'Our results showed that reading an unfavorable horoscope actually has the opposite effect on a person.’  For those who believed in star signs, trying to resist the unfavorable horoscope required mental resources and so left them open to temptation.  Participants who believed in a fixed fate did not exert any mental energy on the subject, so were able to stay focused on the day ahead.

Should a Christian consult horoscopes?"

The purpose of a horoscope is to gain insight into a person’s character and foretell the future. The basic belief of astrology is that planets and stars exert an influence upon our lives. Those with special knowledge—astrologers—can predict events in a person’s life. It is distressing that most major newspapers have a horoscope column, and even more distressing that many Christians read their horoscopes.

The Bible expressly forbids divination, sorcery, and hidden arts (Deuteronomy 18:10-14). God’s people are to heed God only (Deuteronomy 18:15). Any other source of guidance, information, or revelation is to be rejected outright. (See also Acts 16:16-18.) The Bible points to Jesus Christ as the only proper focus of faith (Acts 4:12; Hebrews 12:2). Our trust is in God alone, and we know that He will direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). Faith in anything besides God is misplaced.

Astrology, then, opposes biblical teaching in at least two ways: it advocates faith in something other than God, and it is a form of divination. We cannot determine God's will for our lives through horoscopes. As Christians, we are to read the Bible and pray to God in order to gain wisdom and guidance. Consulting a horoscope is a violation of God's means of communicating with His children. We strongly believe that horoscopes should be rejected by Christians.

Here God condemns fortune tellers. These include those who read palms, tea leaves, use tarot cards or any other device or practice that tries to predict a person’s future or fortunes.  Future Prediction Applications on the Internet therefore fall into these categories as the modern day “Fortune Teller”.

Conclusion

God condemns the use of astrology and horoscopes for many reasons. For one thing, God alone knows the future. We have no business trying to divine what God has not clearly revealed in His Word. Deuteronomy 29:29 says “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." What has God revealed to us? He has revealed His will to us in the Word of God the Bible. We have no business in trying to divine or predict the unknown future. That is God‘s prerogative, not ours. Even if we tried, we’d likely be wrong anyway but the main reason is that it is an abomination to God. When we try to predict or know the future, we are impinging on God’s sovereignty and we are showing a lack of trust in Him.

Christians are treading on dangerous ground if they are reading and following horoscopes or astrology. Sadly I know of several professing Christians who do this. How seriously does God take it when we use anything or anyone that tries to communicate with the dead, predict the future, or seek counsel from anyone else but God? Here is a direct warning, not from me, but from the Word of God. First Chronicles 10:13-14 says that “Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse." Take the Word of God with trembling and fear. God will not compromise with sin and the divination of the future by use of astrology or horoscopes makes Him righteously angry. Don’t go there. Not even for curiosity, “for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord" (Deuteronomy 18:12) for “the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this" (Deuteronomy 18:14).