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The early Christian writer [[Saint Augustine]] strongly rejected astrology; in his late 4th-century book ''[[Confessions]]'' he disproves astrologers in several ways, but one of the clearest logical demolitions uses the story of [[Esau]] and [[Jacob]]:
The early Christian writer [[Saint Augustine]] strongly rejected astrology; in his late 4th century book ''[[Confessions]]'' he disproves astrologers in several ways, but one of the clearest logical demolitions uses the story of [[Esau]] and [[Jacob]]:
:"I then turned my thoughts to those that are born twins, who generally come out of the womb so near the one to the other that the short interval between them - whatever importance they may ascribe to it in the nature of things - cannot be noted by human observation or expressed in those tables which the astrologer uses to examine when he undertakes to pronounce the truth. But such pronouncements cannot be true. For looking into the same horoscopes, he must have foretold the same future for Esau and Jacob, whereas the same future did not turn out for them. He must therefore speak falsely. If he is to speak truly, then he must read contrary predictions into the same horoscopes. But this would mean that it was not by art, but by chance, that he would speak truly." - ''Confessions'', Book Seven, Chapter VI
:"I then turned my thoughts to those that are born twins, who generally come out of the womb so near the one to the other that the short interval between them - whatever importance they may ascribe to it in the nature of things - cannot be noted by human observation or expressed in those tables which the astrologer uses to examine when he undertakes to pronounce the truth. But such pronouncements cannot be true. For looking into the same horoscopes, he must have foretold the same future for Esau and Jacob, whereas the same future did not turn out for them. He must therefore speak falsely. If he is to speak truly, then he must read contrary predictions into the same horoscopes. But this would mean that it was not by art, but by chance, that he would speak truly." - ''Confessions'', Book Seven, Chapter VI