ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY AND RELIGION

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To answer which of the above came first would be like asking if first came the egg or

the chicken. Certainly, it is safe to say that they evolved almost at the same pace

out of the human psyche. As soon as we became conscious, intelligent creatures, we

have always wondered about the sky, the sun, the planets and the far stars in the firmament.

Some past civilizations, millennia ago, started to look at the heavens categorizing and

recording many cosmological events. This human drive never died and today more then

ever we strive to better understand the mysterious universe that pulses with life around us.

Today we call that science, Astronomy. Millennia ago and also in our modern times there

exist a sister to Astronomy, called Astrology. Astrology in our evolutionary past played

a main role in our minds and it was the precursor of Religion. We first cataloged and

recorded all visible planets and stars in the heavens giving names and shapes to many

constellations, and giving planets different human characteristics. We started to believe

that the Universe with its moltitude of constellations had a main role in our daily life and

into our souls, especially when we were born, therefore we created the "Natal Charts", like

blueprints of a human personality. Al lthe above, brought our ancestors to believe that

in the universe existed certain gods that as children played a constant game with us poor mortals.

Therefore, it didn't take too long to invent gods and idols, creating the beginning of Religion.

Many civilizations believed in a large number of divinities with human characteristics

while others believed and still believe in a single god. In our recorded history, we learn

that with the passing of centuries the perception of divinity changed with the same pace

as our brain is developing. Today e call "Pagans" all past civilizations that believed in many

gods while we keep dear the more modern religions that preach that there is only one god!

Judaism, Christianity, Islam and many others are modern religions. All of them preach

almost the same thing, nonetheless, from the times of Jesus the Christ, we still remain

divided and kill each other in the name of our religions! It is time to wake-up from

this deadly religious lethargy and fanaticism realizing that before religion there was humanity and

that in the name of humanity alone we must embrace each other as brothers and sisters.

I like to remind all of us that in the name of religion, millions of innocent people were

killed and continue to be killed. Let explain as brief as possible the danger of religious

fervor and fanaticism. The first Christians just because they believed in a new

religion, Christianity, they were thrown in front of lions by the Romans. Later on, with

the Crusades, the christians killed many Muslims and Jewish while trying to liberate Jerusalem.

The Muslims in the name of allah, conquered many countries killing many "infedels".

Wit ht ediscovery of the americas, many natives where killed in the name of Christianity

by zealous monks and priests. The Spanish Inquisition, tortured, roasted and killed

many innocent people in the name of Jesus the christ. The Nazis exterminated millions

of innocent Jewish people. Today, Jewish and Palestinians are continuing the religious

road with fervor and fanaticism toward their self-destruction.

After the above dissertation, let us talk about the real meaning of religion. Certainly,

there existed a primordial Adam and Eve, and the Lost Garden of Eden. In our not easy

and painful evolution while we were still in our own infancy with our brains not fully

developed, we lived happily like other animals without the fear of death, jealousy

or envy toward another humanoid, without loosing our innocence. This was the mythical

time that we spent in the Garden of Eden. When our brain fully developed we realized

how many things can be created with our own hands combined with our thinking brain,

therefore, at that special time we lost our innocence, from simple animals (mammals)

we became humans, thinking creatures and so loosing that beautiful Garden of Eden

and our innocence. We must remeber that we didn't really loose our Garden of Eden,

we must bear in mind that we just departed from it and today we are far away from it

even though we still live on it! Our lost Garden of Eden is our own little planet,

our "mother Earth" where we live and breath, and we can make our planet again the

Garden of Eden that originally was supposed to be or we can condemn our little

planet and ourselves to a global suicide if we do not realize how fragile, how unique,

how wonderful this little p[lanet that we all call home, really is!

One of the best religious teachers was certainly Jesus the christ. In his own way,

Jesus was a human genius. His brain was more developed that the one of people of his own times.

Jesus saw around him intelligent people killing each others. He saw and felt hate,

jealousy and envy toward other human beings, and realized as futile all this was.

He knew how short our life span is and that in the final hour we will all depart with empty hands.

He knew how wonderful is the miracle of intelligent life and how dangerous lise is unless

we all get together to help each other. He preached with simple parables to be easily

understood by all and by his ideals he was killed and put to the cross like a regular criminal.

Today, after two thousand years the teachings of Jesus the christ are still vivid and alive.

Millions of people are christians from different religious denominations and all are disguising

the real teachings of the "Master" for their personal gains. Many preachers use the words of Jesus

almost daily for their own profits, many priests rape and victimize children.

In the Vatican you can see gold even on the floor imbedded with beautiful expensive marble.

In the apst centuries many Roman Catholic Popes were military men, they fathered several

children, they conquered and killed many people. Can we call these people "Christians?",

I do not think so! If Jesus the Christ would come back today, imagine what he could do

to the religion and preachers that are using his name and teachings to enrich themselves.

Jesus was one of the first socialist or perhaps communist figures in the real sense of the word.

Jesus saw how much surplus food, clothings, medicines and other human items were daily

discarded as garbage by the rich and wealthy of his time while many poor people were starving

to death, and he realized that would be better if the rich could give part of his fortune to

the poor and needy. Poor Jesus didn't imagine for a second that avarice and human greed

are one of the greatest human faults. We humans are like predators, we like to get as much

as possible for ourselves without thinking a moment for our fellow humans.

Jesus was thinking of a world where there was no rich or poor person, of a world where all

would enjoy the same things, live the same life, dress the same clothings, loving each other

like real brothers and sisters. He knew that there is no difference between the rich and

the poor, that we all suffer and feel the same pain when we are sick or hungry, that we laugh

and cry in the same manner, that we are born and will die in the same way.

The Master wanted all of us to share everything that the human mind is capable of producing

but again he failed to understand human nature for a simple reason, the reason being that

Jesus was born in the wrong time of human history and evolution. His brain capacity and

vision was far behind that time and place. Two millennia have passed since then and our

brains have developed rapidly especially in this century.......still Jesus vision is far behind

our own time. In the last two millennia nothiong has changed inisde the human mind.

We still kill and destroy each other, steal and rob, persecute, hate, and are envious

of our own neighbor. There is no love or affection left for anybody. We will reamin so

until more centuries will pass and our brains will reach the development and vision

of Jesus the Christ. Until then, there will be more suffering, hate and mistrust among

people unless a real miracle will haoppen and Jesus wil lreturn to save us all from our own

destruction. Going into the next millennium we must put aisde our divergences, and

use our surplus to help the less fortunate. In doing so, finally we will became real humans

and the keys to unlock the mystery of the Universe will be given to us. You all can clearly

see from this article what shape and form religion can take and what religion did to the

human psyche.Therefore, it is better to teach less religion while improving the standard of

living of the poor and the needy. The next poor person close to you can be

Jesus the Christ in disguise trying to see what kind of a human being you really are! THE END

Antonino Angileri