The Popularity of Name a Star Gifts
It is true that many astronomers and scientists denounce name a star gifts as scientifically irrelevant. And even though the web site Space.com once said that your money will be better spent on a picture astronomy book than on a novelty gift, many planetariums and other science non-profits have created name a star programs because they are so popular with the public.
Why do star naming services have so much appeal? There are two reasons:
First, for every person who has read an article about astronomy in a magazine or book, a thousand have looked up their daily horoscope. In fact, most people confuse astrologers with astronomers and make no differentiation between the two. Why is this? It’s because astrology relates to a person’s individualized relationship with the cosmos. Why is that so remarkable? The impression that what bumps in the stars influences a person’s individual life history has been a component of human civilization throughout history. The scientist Johannes Kepler, who demonstrated without a doubt that the planets revolve around the Sun rather than the Earth, earned his living drawing horoscopes for the royalty of Europe. So just as astronomy was superseding astrology, astrology was still interpreted a highly honored profession. It wasnt until Isaac Newton began to trace the way the planets, moons, and stars influenced one another in outer space through his laws of gravitation did society start to look at the stars as something else beside precursors of their individual fate.
Secondly, the feeling that stars induce a personal association with humans began with the Greek belief that the entire universe revolves around the Earth. If it were true that the universe rotates around the Earth, then what may happen in that universe, so one may think, certainly must affect me. This is why astrology to this day causes such a whopping impact on us, particularly when it pretends to prognosticate the future.