Why Are Name a Star Gifts so Popular?
January 27th, 2010Planetarium directors, astronomers and scientists are joined in reprobating name a star gifts as scientifically unsuitable. Some argue that your money would be better spent on an astronomy book than with a novelty gift. Even so, planetariums and other science-based non-profits have started up star naming programs because they are so popular with the public. Why the popularity? There are two reasons:
1. One is that for every person who may seen an article about astronomy in the paper, a thousand have checked on their astrology reading for the day. In fact, most people mix up astronomers and astrologers and make no distinction. Why? It’s because astrology refers to a human’s personalized relationship with the stars. Why is this so consequential? The opinion that what takes place in the stars bears upon a person’s individual life history has been a component of our culture for as long as we know. The scientist Johannes Kepler, who demonstrated once and for all that the planets revolve around the Sun not the Earth, earned his living doing horoscopes for the monarchs of Europe. So while astronomy was supplanting astrology, astrology was still thought a very respected profession. It wasn’t until Sir Isaac Newton started to describe the way in which the planets, moons, and stars affect one another in outer space by means of his laws of gravity did people begin to think about the stars as anything else beside foreshadowing of their individual fate.
2. The concept that the stars carry a personal association with people commenced with the Greek concept that the entire universe orbits around the Earth. If the stars goes around around the Earth, then what takes place in that universe, so one may suppose, certainly must bear upon me. This is why horoscopes to this day causes such a broad affect on people, specially when it ventures to portend the future.
