Psychology or Astrology?

A few weeks ago I was asked to write and present a paper on the proper response to the thought that personality tests and other psychological testing have pagan astrology as their basis. I had to think twice. I knew I had taken many of these tests myself without thinking twice. And now I was supposed to defend or ditch them. So before I made my input, my first stop was at the library to examine some of the writers’ opinions and later form my own.

Personality tests aim at categorizing people according to certain observable forms of behavior, which Keirsey and Bates (1984) believe are important in interpersonal relationships. People are different from each other and no amount of getting after them is going to change them. And there is no reason to change them, because the differences are probably good not bad.

The study of personality has been aided by a number of tools including, among others, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the DiSC Personal Profile System (PPS), the Biblical Personal Profiles (BPP), the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis (TJTA), the LaHaye Temperament Analysis (LTA), the Personality Profile Test (PPT), and the Spiritual Gifts Inventories (http://www.rapidnet.com). The big questions is to what degree are these tests related to, or have a bearing towards, pagan astrology?

According to the expository dictionary of Bible words, the word astrology as used in the context of the Book of Daniel is linked with magic and sorcery. People who practice magic and sorcery, referred to as “diviners of heavens” (Isaiah 47:13), expect to find guidance for the decisions they must make and to gain insight into the future. Scripture does, however, prohibit God’s people from looking to any source but the Lord himself for personal guidance. Deuteronomy 8 calls all such practices “detestable” and says “Let no one be found among you who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiriticit or who consults the dead” (18:10-11). Scripture gives a number of ways Christians can be guided. These include the completed word of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the insights of other Christians, circumstances, and the proper use of our renewed minds (Romans 12:2). These sources provide all the guidance we need. To turn to any other source is to insult the living Lord and to reject the guidance he has provided.

The grand question is whether personality testing and its suggestion of who we are is outside the proper use of what God has ordained to guide us, thus qualifying as divination or astrology. A careful examination of astrology as it stands side by side with personality testing is necessary if we are to understand the similarities or the differences. Take the horoscope for example. By plotting all the heavenly bodies pertinent to the sign under which an individual is born, an astrologer draws up a celestial map known as a horoscope. Conclusions are drawn from this regarding one’s personality, tendencies etc., and thus predictions are made. The question is how different are these “horoscope” predictions from the four temperaments of Keirsey and Bates or from all the other personality groupings? How scientific are these predictions and how can we be certain that they are not rooted in astrology and fortunetelling? In their book “Magic, Mystery, and Science,” Burton and Grandy (2004) confer that the occult, the magic, and the mystery of the ancient worlds still seeks refugee in western civilization through science and psychology.

Just how different are we and how much can personality tests define the kind of people we are- our weaknesses and strengths, our actions and human relationships? How much does the Holy Spirit change our temperaments? How much does God change us to suit the kind of ministry he has called us to do? Can we say that we are wired this way or that way? Doesn’t God reserve the ultimate control of our personalities? Can personality tests define who I am and how I relate with fellow man? Much as one can argue that the idea of personality and temperament is truth related to anthropology, it is also true that the philosophers who have passed on our lessons in anthropology were greatly influenced by the mythological beliefs of their time. In the same breath, therefore, believers ought to pay close attention to whatever form of knowledge that claims to define and predict human behaviors based on formula and method. The study of temperament and personality traits might as well be the new form of astrology, the civilized horoscope with scientific evidence.