Is It Written in the Stars?

I remember various times throughout my childhood when I would find myself lying out in the backyard with my family on cots in the middle of the night, eating cinnamon toast, drinking cocoa, shivering under blankets and trying to keep the dog from licking our hair while we waited for a lunar eclipse or a spectacular meteor shower. As I hunted the sky for constellations, watched the moon turn red, or looked for sparkles of light shooting across the blackness, it never occurred to me that for different viewers over time, what I was seeing would have had many different meanings.

A book I've been reading called "The History of Astronomy talks about astronomy up through the 19th century. It was fascinating to me to realize how much religious importance astronomers of past ages placed on the stars.

Many different cultures had their forms of zodiac or patterns of constellations that they placed religious significance on. The ancient Egyptians patterned their calculation of the seasons off of sky patterns that corresponded with the flooding of the Nile - an event that they believed was caused by the god of the Nile. Aristotle created a concentric diagram of the cosmos, portraying angels and God at the outer levels. Kepler focused on diagramming the aspect of geometry in the universe, which he believed was created by God, the great geometer. Newton saw the sun and planets as having been planned by a divine Providence for the protection of man. The list goes on and on.

What happened? Now, the stars are viewed as lumps of matter out in space, placed there by some sort of Big Bang. Those viewed as serious astronomers have placed God on the sidelines and covered him with the cloak of religious fanaticism as related to the heavens.

Some people, however, still cling to the belief that God is involved in the heavens. They read accounts of the stars being formed in the heavens, and the earth being turned backward for a day, and the star appearing at the birth of Christ, and they believe that God still has power in heaven. They read the Revelation of John and believe that someday the stars will fall from heavens and the sun will hide its face and all the other miraculous heavenly occurrences that have been prophesied will happen.

Is there a way to prove they are right or wrong? Not in any way that will convince both believers and non-believers, as far as I can see. I just don't see the harm in letting people believe what they want.

After all, if God is not allowed in heaven anymore, then where is he allowed?