Dear Editor,

Why in this modern age do we have a daily radio programme like Starscope — “a prediction of your day under the stars” — and the occasional newspaper horoscope also based on the imaginary shapes of the celestial bodies?

Which person who is educated beyond primary school does not know that the so-called signs of the zodiac and, hence, one’s birth sign/star has been rubbished by the invention of the telescope?

What pre-scientific humans thought they saw in the skies using the naked eye disappear when you scan or skim the celestial bodies through a telescope.

So there is no Aries, Pisces, Sagittarius, and the others in reality! Starscope and horoscopes are thus astrological hogwash or nice-sounding nonsense! Yet some of us would not risk leaving home before hearing our “day under the stars” or before reading our horoscope for the day.

Think a bit about the presumption behind or the foundational implication of horoscopes/starscope. All people under the same sign would be having an identical or at least similar kind of day, nationwide, or even globally. Like, seriously? Maybe barely possible, but probable, likely, certain?

For fun, and in preparation of a talk on horoscopes years ago, I checked one day to see what my day would be like and discovered my forecast saying something like: “This is a great day to move house.” My wife’s reading for that same day was the exact opposite: “This is not a good day for moving house.” Okay, so what does one do with such readings?

Utter nonsense!

I recall reading about an American graduate student in France who paid for his studies by writing horoscopes for a newspaper. He admitted that he simply juggled around the comments under the various signs when he could not be bothered to come up with different daily new readings for each sign.

Christians especially who may be hooked on starscope and horoscopes must decide who governs their day and lives — the impersonal celestial stars or the infinite, personal God whom they claim they serve.

Non-Christians who are so hooked must face the fact that the telescope has demolished the basis of starscope and horoscope!

Rev Clinton Chisholm

Academic Dean

Caribbean Graduate School of Theology

clintchis@yahoo.com