What does the Bible say about dousing for water?
Is dowsing a form of divination? Is dowsing an acceptable occupation for a Christian?
Deuteronomy 18:10 - 12
ESV - 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 Or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.
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Tim Maas
Supporter
I'm not sure that the Bible specifically addresses dowsing (that is, the practice of searching for underground substances or objects (such as water, buried metals, gemstones, and so forth) by holding a Y-shaped "divining rod" that supposedly detects the presence of the substance or object by being drawn downward to point at its location). However (speaking from a Lutheran perspective), Luther considered dowsing (which apparently arose in the context of Renaissance magic in Germany) to be a violation of the first commandment as an occultic practice. Since there is also no scientific evidence (that I could find) that dowsing has any greater effectiveness than random chance would have, I would say that not only Christians, but people in general, would do well to avoid it.
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