One of the strangest things I noticed over time is that when people decide they no longer want to be associated with Christianity, or believe God isn’t real, there may be many reasons for why they walked away. One of the more common reasons I’ve heard, is that logically and scientifically, God doesn’t make sense (Which I, personally, disagree with, since science and logic is what brought me to Christ, but I digress)

The point isn’t whether science proves God existence, but why those who say they are walking away from faith say they trust science, but also seem to trust astrology as well. To date, astrology has no scientific backing whatsoever, and zero evidence proving any correlation between one’s astrological sign and their personality.

This led me to my question: Why do those who walk away from the church for reasons of science tend to gravitate towards something that has zero scientific support?

I decided to ask them myself.

To be clear, what I am about to share is not scientific itself, purely anecdotal. I reached out to people who have publicly addressed that they consider themselves either atheists, deconstructed, agnostic, or unsure of their faith. Many of these pages post and share astrological symbols, horoscopes or other posts that seem to give the impression that they agree or believe the post enough to share it.

Those I spoke to are aware that I am a Christian, and were asked this question on the grounds that I would not argue, respond, or do anything other than ask follow-up questions. They all agreed to share this information on the grounds that they would remain anonymous.

After asking numerous people who are no longer Christians why they say they support science, but yet also support astrology, here’s what I found:

The first reaction tended to be accusatory, saying that “Christians do the same thing by choosing to live their lives following a Bible”, they just choose the stars instead of a Bible. However, after asking follow up questions requesting information on why they choose to follow something that is found to be unscientific, they all tended to share the same sentiment:

“I don’t know if it’s true, I think its possible, but it helps bring meaning to life”

One thing that was interesting is I posed the following question: “Do you personally believe there is a correlation between astrological signs and personality traits?”

Not a single person said yes.

Many said something to the effect of “I don’t know”, some said “Maybe”. The closest to an affirmation I got was one respondent said “I think it is possible”.

Other reasons that I received were that it’s possibly because it’s all in good fun, and they’re trying it because when they were Christians they were never allowed to do it. One page in particular said in a lighthearted way that “Some people just jump from one form of fundamentalism to another”

I reached out to one page that promotes astrology as fact, and they chose not to respond our questions

When asked to hypothesize why so many ex-Christians embrace astrology, even those who has previously posted horoscopes an astrological-related info expressed confusion that they don’t understand why, many stating that it made them feel good, and helped them find meaning, and that it’s “fun”

When I asked if they saw that there was a dissonance to the fact that they tell people to trust science while promoting something unscientific, they disagreed. One shared that “Just because science says something isn’t true doesn’t mean it can’t bring me hope”. Another said “Christians trust in fairy tales in their bibles, I choose the stars and science”

Nearly every page referenced “meaning”, “hope” or seeking out some form of guidance in their lives, even after leaving the church.

Everyone has an internal search and hope to find meaning, and when we don’t find it in one thing, we try and find it in others. Interestingly enough, some tend to ignore science on the hope of finding meaning.

The search for truth is something that led me personally to God. Whatever you’re putting your faith and hope in, ask questions about it. Truth will always prevail.