Astronomy and religion

Archaeological evidence of many ancient cultures demonstrates that celestial bodies were the subject of worship during the Stone and Bronze Ages.

Likewise, as agriculture developed, the need to keep accurate time led to more careful tracking of the positions of the sun, moon and planets; resulting with their deification when they became inextricably linked with the means of survival.

[1] In the ancient Egyptian calendar, the date of the annual flooding of the Nile was predicted by observing the heliacal rising of a star.

[2] As science expanded during the Renaissance, the secular beliefs of scientific investigators encountered the opposition of Christian orthodoxy.

Nicolaus Copernicus followed by astronomers such as Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler suggested a different model with the sun at the center of the universe.

This model was based on more extensive and precise observations with classical instruments, The newly created telescope provided supporting evidence and mathematical studies suggested orbits in the shape of ellipses.

These models were not accepted by society which at the time was dominated by the Catholic religion and these astronomers received harsh criticism both the church and those around them.

After coming to the conclusion that the Holy Trinity could not exist due to the fact that Jesus couldn't be equal to God, Newton chose to not become a minister.

[8] Despite his desire to connect the science to the scripture, he was attacked by society and the church in his writing of the Principia when he was studying astronomy and soon delved into other works after being incapable of handling the criticism from his peers.