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lonia and Assy ria, located in what is
now mode rn Iraq. As th eir religious
documents and inscriptio ns cl early
show, thc Ba by lonians firml y bc–
lieved that powe rful gods communi–
ca ted with man through all kinds of
natura l events and conditions - the
ma rkings on thc entra ils of a sacri–
fici a l anima l, the behavio r o f ani–
ma ls or humans in the streets, the
sha pe of a mi scarricd fe tus, thc pa t–
te rn formed by smoke from an o il
lamp or by wa te r poured oo oi l,
aod , not lcasL the posi tions of p la n–
c ts and stars in thc sky .
Such events, believed to be mes–
sa ges o f the future, a re ca ll ed
ornens,
a nd th e a rt o f seekin g and inte r–
pre ting ome ns is call ed
di vination.
Anc ient socie ties be li eved omens
we re messages from the gods reveal–
in g future cvcnts. Ma ny pcopl cs o f
the a ncient world - the Baby lo–
nia ns, Assyria ns, Egyptians, Greeks,
ami Romans- practi ced divination.
Proba bly the mos t popular fo rm
o f di vination in anc ient Ba by lon
was the examin a tion o f th e entra ils
of animals, especially sheep, thal
we re sac rificed Lo th e god. Just be–
fore slaying the anima L the div ina–
ti on priest bcseech ed th e gods to
The seasons. causcd by the carth's
revolution around the sun, also have
a markcd annual influence on li ving
things. Similarly, the lides, drivcn
primarily by thc gravitational at–
traction of the moon, affect count–
less creatures in the sea on roughly a
(2-hour basis.
Research has demonstrated that
man too may be perceptibly in–
fluenced by lunar and solar radi–
atíon and/or grav itati onal
attraction.
However, such ' 'celestial cycles"
operate on
a ll men,
regardless of
whcn or where they were born. fn–
deed, thc readjustment
or
onc':,
bio–
logical clock aft e r a change in
environment - as occurs in "jet lag"
- proves that s uch biological cycles
are not immuta bly fi xed. Rath e r,
each pc rson·s bio-clock can be re–
vised and resct numerous times
tbroughout one's life as the cnviron–
me nt changes.
There's no question that bio logi–
cal rhythms and clocks are often
The
PLAIN TRUTH November 1976
write his message on the entrail of
th e shee p. When the o rga ns were
examined, an y unu s ual marks ,
lumps. o r shapes were inte rpre ted as
the god 's answe r; evcn the normal
confi gura tion of Lhe o rgans had sig–
nificancc. Hundreds of clay tab le ts
have been unearthed from the la nds
of Ba byloni a and Assyri a bcaring
deta iled instructions lo the pri ests
on how to interpret the ma rks on
entra ils o f sacrificia l a nima ls as we ll
as how to interpre t thousa nds o f
oth c r ominous events a nd cond i–
tions. Such practices we re known fa r
and wide; the Bible even rccords
that Nebuchadnezzar o f Ba by lon
"looked in the li ver" fo r guida ncc
from the gods in his campaigns
against
J
udah (Ezekie l
21 :2 1
).
The Stars and Planets
As the Babylonian c reation myth.
the
Enuma Elish,
clearly shows, the
sta rs and planets were be licved to
be the signs o f the most powerful
god s, a nd in sorne cases wc re ac–
tually gods themsel ves .
N aturally, since thc sta rs and
planets were viewed as divine. or
symbols of divine action and poweL
they became the objects of careful
línked to the motions of the sun and
moon. But this in no way justifies
the
belief that astrological signs and
the positions of the sun, moon, plan–
ets, or stars at the time of birth can
be used to predict one's future.
The Bible labels the worship of
the heavens as idolatry: "Take good
heed to yourseJves ... lest you lift
up your eyes to heaven, and when
you see the sun and the moon and
the stars. all the host of heaven,
you ... worship them and serve
them .. .'' (Deut.
4: 15, 19.
RSV).
Of course, astrology buffs can al–
ways claim they are not really
wor–
shipping the heavens,just relying on
them for certain "important' ' infor–
mation. Yet the fact remains that
astrology has no scientific basis.
The prophct Daniel encountered
a s trologers in Ne buchadnezza r's
co urt: 'Then carne in the magicians.
the astrologers. the Chaldeans, and
the soothsayers: and 1 told the
dream be forc them; but they did
not make known unto me the
o b serva t io n by t h e di v inat io n
pr icsts. Eventua lly, deta iled records
of the movements and pos itions of
the planets were kep t. T hese rcco rds
and ca lcula ti ons based upon them
became th c foundat ion for no t only
as tronomy, but as trology as we ll.
Because the Ba bylon ians a nd As–
sy r ians be lievcd the heavenly bod ies
wc re rcpresenta ti ve of the gods,
t he ir posi tions a nd movements wc re
obviously o f grca t sign ifi cancc to life
and evcnts on ea rth . We know tha t
by abou t
700
B.C the pla nets. in–
cl udin g t he sun and moon , were
be ing ca re fully wa tched by the As–
sy rians fo r their impact on the life of
the king . Numerous lette rs a nd state
records tell us of wa rni ngs by the
pri ests for the ki ng t o be careful , or
to have rit uals carried out to at–
tempt to avoid the predicted di –
sas te r.
Othe r astronomica l omens were
favorabl e to the king but unfavor–
a bl e to fore igners . Langers'
Encyclo–
pedia of World Histo1y
shows that
th e ea rliest development of ast rol–
ogy was associated with Babylon ian
magic and divina tion:
The most characteristic and in–
fluent ial features of Babylonian
interpretation the reof' (Dan.
4:7).
Daniel found the astro logers to–
tally ineffective. And so have mod–
ern-day scicntific studies.
' 'The ast rologer is often better
able to read his dients
wishes
than
to predict the alleged dcstiny im–
plicit in the celestial bodies,' ' says
professor of philosophy, Paul Kurtz.
"Yet the true believer still insists
tha t astrology is basically true in
some mysterious way ."
"There are obviously millions of
peoplc who believc thís astrology
stuff.' ' says Dr. Linus Pauling, twicc
a Nobcl Prize winner, ' 'and
1
think it
is worthwhile to explain that it has
nothing whatever to do with scien–
t
i
ti
e
fact.''
ln
the fina l analys is, the ove r–
whe lming evidence is that as tro logy
is little more than an ente rtain ing
form of pseudo-sophisticated supe r–
stition. "The fa ult, dear Brutus, is
not in the stars . but in our–
se lves.. . . .''
- Robert
A.
Ginskey
13