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Apologia Report 18:10 (1,146)
March 6, 2013
Subject: The dense, daunting world of Indian astrology
In this issue:
ASTROLOGY - summaries of contrasting astrological systems
FREAK FILE - a British church for atheists?
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - an uncritical review of Gunnar Samuelsson's Crucifixion in Antiquity
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ASTROLOGY
"An Indian Test of Indian Astrology" by Jayant V. Narlikar -- especially significant for its helpful summaries of contrasting astrological systems. "In the world of astrology, India has many claims to fame. It has an astrology fundamentally different from both Chinese and Western astrology." An endnote here speaks of "the Indian astrology still in use today, which exists in numerous schools disagreeing over details (most schools of astrology, Indian or Western, disagree over details). The main differences from Western astrology are a preoccupation with reincarnation and karma, use of the sidereal zodiac instead of the tropical zodiac (they now differ by nearly one sign due to precession), exclusion of the non-classical planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in favor of the two lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu, use of twenty-seven lunar mansions or nakshatras, and progressively smaller and smaller subdivisions of the signs."Continuing the Indian claims to astrological fame, Narlikar notes that India has "possibly more part- and full-time astrologers than in the rest of the world put together, and the world's longest-running English astrological monthly (The Astrological Magazine (1985-2007) <www.astrologicalmagazine.com>
. Its main government funding agency, the University Grants Commission, provides support for ... courses in astrology in Indian universities."
In reference to reincarnation, another endnote adds: "According to ancient Hindu texts, each believer has 8,400,000 rebirths from which they are released only by attaining enlightenment." Narlikar then calculates the vast amount of time, if taken literally, that all those rebirths might require one soul to complete.
Narlikar describes the extremes to which Indian lives are driven by astrological advice. He follows this by explaining that "Western astrologers are generally taught that astrology is nonfatalistic and therefore not a good bet for predicting events. Indian astrologers hold the opposite view, and every astrologer worthy of the name must be able to make such forecasts. Unfortunately, these predictions do not carry any controls. ...
"Indian astrologers often make extreme claims about [ancient] Indian astronomy...." Narlikar provides examples of this, climaxing with an example which ‘implies that the shadows cast on ancient sundials were routinely positioned to better accuracy than a hundred millionth of the diameter of an atom. Even at night." (I'd say that qualifies as "extreme," wouldn't you? - RP)
"Indian astrology is more complex than Western astrology, with countless authoritative aphorisms to cover every possible situation. Indeed, the few Western authors who have described it for Western use have typically required decades of study before proceeding. ...
"And there is no Western equivalent to the ways in which those authoritative aphorisms can be modified via suitably chosen amulets, mantras, colors, gemstones ..., and by performing *yajnas* (a spiritual ceremony involving offerings to fire performed by a Hindu priest)." A caption beneath a diagram of South Indian, North Indian, and Western system components such as signs and houses reads: "Indian horoscopes are a different shape from Western horoscopes, and their signs, houses, and aspects are calculated differently. They also differ in how they are interpreted. A Western-style interpretation focusing on the owner's personality and motivations would be rejected in India, where clients expect fortune telling."
Narlikar goes on to describe Indian Nadi astrology, computerized horoscopes, and astrology as an emphasis in Indian government and education in some detail. He also presents a summary of the spectacular astrological prediction failures in India.
"In the West, books critical of astrology are not hard to find, but in India the reverse is true." Narlikar notes two "excellent" though unavailable books [1] as examples of the latter, and adds that "all are hampered by a lack of Indian tests with which to counter true believers." He also recommends <www.astrologyandscience.com>.
To help rectify the need for Indian tests mentioned above, Narlikar concludes his essay by describing "a controlled test that my colleagues and I conducted recently." He then summarizes: "Our experiment with twenty-seven Indian astrologers judging forty horoscopes each, and [another] team of astrologers judging 200 horoscopes, showed that none were able to tell bright children from mentally handicapped children better than chance." Skeptical Inquirer, Mar/Apr '13, pp45-49.
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FREAK FILE
And it came to pass that a group of atheists in the UK decided to create a church for people of their own persuasion. In "My Sunday at an Atheistic Church," Kyle Beshears reports: "The Sunday Assembly <www.sundayassembly.com>, as the group is called, meets once a month at The Nave in North London for 'anybody searching for a sense of community, to meet and "turn good intentions into action."' ...
"After some singing, the service shifted to the talk.
"It was given by the (wonderfully articulate and intelligent) guest speaker, Harry Cliff - a researcher at the University of Cambridge and super particle physicist from CERN <www.ow.ly/iswi2>. Cliff delivered a great talk, which I believe ironically pointed to the very God of creation that the church was disavowing. ...
"I couldn't hold back a huge smile.
"Why? Because Cliff's talk sounded an awful lot like ... Genesis 1:1-3. ...
"It seemed that most people were there for ... community and singing. Or, what we Christians like to call fellowship and worship.
...
"People missed the fellowship and worship they left behind in their childhood churches, but have since yearned for a return to them. "The more I came to realize this point, the more obvious it became - all of these people - made in God's image, are simply trying to fill the void of their design and purpose without actually knowing how. ...
"They are missing the point entirely.
"Church isn't about music, it isn't about making people feel happy, and it isn't about instilling wonder. Church isn't even about getting together in community to get your felt needs met. "Church is about Jesus." <www.ow.ly/iswtt>
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JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion, by Gunnar Samuelsson (University of Gothenburg) [3] -- as you might suppose, the Watchtower crowd likes this book: <www.ow.ly/idVuG>. A review in Evangelical Quarterly (85:1 - 2013, pp72-74) by Dick France reports that, contrary to claims by some in the media, Samuelsson's work "casts no doubt on the reality of the death of Jesus, only on the specific means of his execution. As he puts it, it all depends on where you place the emphasis: he is not saying 'Jesus may not have *died* on the cross' but 'Jesus may not have died on the *cross.*' So the question is what was a cross, and how did it work.
"Few except specialists will want to read all the research. It is careful, well-presented, and as far as I know more comprehensive than any other study of the ancient evidence. ... "It soon becomes clear that this will be primarily a study of terminology. If you thought you knew what a 'cross' was ... be prepared to be surprised."
Samuelsson "understands crucifixion to be 'a suspension, a completed or intended execution on a pole, with or without a crossbeam, and it ended in an extended death struggle.' ...
"Samuelsson claims that very many of the supposed 'crucifixions' in ancient texts are so labelled by scholars ... with Christian hindsight [assuming] the sort of cross we are familiar with. ...
"Many will no doubt feel uncomfortable with the author's terminological minimalism, and will wish to claim that many of the ancient texts do in fact provide evidence for something very like what we call 'crucifixion,' but at least we can no longer plead that we were not warned how slippery the ancient vocabulary for 'suspension punishment' actually is."
William Lane Craig has given a general, rather brief response on the subject: <www.ow.ly/ie0PQ>. Evangelical academics specializing in textual criticism have given Samuelsson specific attention: <www.ow.ly/ie1Dx>.
Also consider Crucifixion, by Martin Hengel [3] and David W. Chapman's book, Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion [4], which was evaluated in Review of Biblical Literature (July, 2010): <www.ow.ly/ie3Vz>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1a - Astrology: Science or Ego-trip?, Premanand B., Bhatty M., & Risbud M.S., eds.; The Indian Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (10 Chettipalayam Road, Podanus 641023, Tamilnadu, India), 1993 -- which we couldn't find.
Narlikar calls it "The best single survey of both Indian and Western astrology...."
1b - Astrology: Believe It or Not?, by S. Balachandra Rao (Navakarnataka [Bangalore], 2000, paperback, 156 pages) -- also unable to find.
2 - Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion, by Gunnar Samuelsson (Mohr Siebeck, 2011, paperback, 357 pages) <www.ow.ly/iejhC>
3 - Crucifixion, by Martin Hengel (Fortress, 1977, paperback, 99 pages) <www.ow.ly/ihLHe>
4 - Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion, by David W. Chapman (Baker, 2010, paperback, 336 pages) <www.ow.ly/ihKL4>
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