What Are the Reasons Why People Name a Star?
The astronomical community for the most part condemns star naming as scientifically impertinent. The web site Space.com pronounces that one’s money could be better spent on a picture astronomy book than on a novelty gift, even so planetariums and other science non-profits have taken up name a star programs because they are so popular with the public.
Where does this popularity come from? There are two reasons:
1. The less self-evident is that for every person who might seen an article about astronomy in the paper, a thousand have checked their daily astrology reading. It’s true, most laymen mix up astronomers with astrologers and make no distinction. Why is this true? Because astrology refers to a person’s physiologic relationship with the cosmos. Why is that so remarkable? The notion that what takes place in the stars bears upon a person’s personal life has been a part of human culture for as long as we know. Johannes Kepler, who verified once and for all that the planets revolve around the Sun not the Earth, made his living doing horoscopes for the kings of Europe. So while astronomy was supplanting astrology, it was still regarded a highly estimable profession. Not until Sir Isaac Newton started to trace the way the planets, moons, and stars influenced each other in space through his laws of gravitational force did the culture begin to look at the stars as anything else besides harbingers of their individual fate.
2. The idea that the stars have a personal connection with people began with the Greek belief that the entire universe rotates around the Earth. If it were true that the stars goes around around the Earth, then what happens in that universe, so one might reckon, certainly must affect me. This is why astrology to this day bears such a big affect on the world, particularly when it pretends to predict the future.
