A glowing article about how millennials are ditching religion for astrology and psychics celebrates the fact that millennials - the first generation to come of age during the Harry Potter era - are ditching religion. Should we be surprised?
Writing for Marketwatch.com, reporter Kari Paul seems almost giddy over the decline in interest among millennials for religion.
“Interest in spirituality has been booming in recent years while interest in religion plummets, especially among millennials,” she breathlessly reports. “The majority of Americans now believe it is not necessary to believe in God to have good morals, a study from Pew Research Center released Wednesday found. The percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who ‘never doubt existence of God’ fell from 81% in 2007 to 67% in 2012.”
She continues: “Meanwhile, more than half of young adults in the U.S. believe astrology is a science compared to less than 8% of the Chinese public. The psychic services industry — which includes astrology, aura reading, mediumship, tarot-card reading and palmistry, among other metaphysical services — grew 2% between 2011 and 2016. It is now worth $2 billion annually, according to industry analysis firm IBIS World.”
In the article, Paul interviewed Melissa Jayne, the owner of a Brooklyn-based metaphysical boutique, who said she’s seen a major uptick in the interest in the occult in the last five years, especially among New Yorkers in their 20’s.
“Whether it be spell-casting, tarot, astrology, meditation and trance, or herbalism, these traditions offer tangible ways for people to enact change in their lives,” Paul writes. “For a generation that grew up in a world of big industry, environmental destruction, large and oppressive governments, and toxic social structures, all of which seem too big to change, this can be incredibly attractive.”
What Paul neglects to add is that they also grew up in the age of Harry Potter and other occult fiction that was passed off as “just a book” but actually whetted the appetites of our youth to the occult.
A Barna study conducted in 2006 found that four out of five teens had read Harry Potter. As a result, one out of every eight teenagers (12%) said that the Potter chronicles increased their interest in witchcraft. Three-quarters of America’s youth (73%) have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity, beyond mere media exposure or horoscope usage.
Those teens are now millennials.
Another shocking revelation in the article is that millennials - who are among the most educated people in the country, think astrology, which is a Babylonian occult art, is a science!
Paul never bothers to correct the record by stating that astronomy - not astrology - is a science and these young people have it all wrong. Instead, she interviews a millennial who tells her that when she greets people these days, she doesn’t ask where they live or what they do – she asks what their sign is.
“So many millennials read their horoscopes every day and believe them,” said the woman who is named Coco Layne. “It is a good reference point to identify and place people in the world.”
As I report in my book, The New Age Compendium, today’s astrology isn’t even based on the real number of planets and only recognizes five of them – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. According to Father Mitch Pacwa, leaving out the rest of them allows each astrologer to make up his or her own interpretation of these planetary influences! How's that for an "exact science"?
In fact, if one applied real science to astrology, “whatever date the newspaper gives for your sign, move it back one whole sign, because that, in fact, is your real sign,” Fr. Pacwa says.
For that matter, why would anyone with even a moderate degree of education want to rely on something that has been proven wrong time and time again. Perhaps the most spectacular example is when the French statistician Michel Gauquelin sent the horoscope for one of the worst mass murderers in French history to 150 unsuspecting people who were asked how well it fit them. A whopping 94 percent said they recognized themselves in the description.
If horoscopes were true, that would mean the majority of those 150 people are mass murderers!
Paul goes on to celebrate Gwyneth Paltrow’s ludicrous website, Goop, which just received the “worst pseudoscience” award for promoting outlandish – and sometimes dangerous – products such as yoni eggs (which are inserted into the vagina and can cause toxic shock and/or bacterial vaginosis), Body Vibe stickers (which claimed to be NASA inspired until NASA set them straight and made them remove all mention of their name) and ayahuasca tea (that has led to the death of several people).
Aside from the fact that the article was ridiculously biased in its reporting, it does draw attention to the very real loss of faith in the younger generation. This, coupled with this generation's fascination with occult-fiction, is adding up to a real spiritual disaster among young adults in this country.
