Ancient people believed in Gods for causes to nature and the unexplained. Once the fourth century BC rolled around, people began to see astronomical phenomena’s as natural events repeated throughout ages rather than the actions of Gods. Greeks did not worship celestial bodies very strongly in their religion, despite having idolized the Sun and Moon. Different people’s beliefs varied greatly in ancient times. Different countries progressed in thought at different speeds. During the Renaissance, many began to toss aside medieval distress with supernatural forces and turned to worldly concerns like fame. With the Age of Discovery, people began to think for themselves and believe truths through philosophy, science, astronomy, and astrology. Philosophers' minds began to turn; the human mind was finally awake.
Plato, a famous Greek philosopher, believed stars were Gods that the creator gave life to. This view was very influential and proved to be sort of a religion for intellectual idealists, no longer for the general public. At the time the thought of heavenly bodies being divine and stars being eternal objects in unchanging motion were common knowledge. Thinking otherwise was considered Atheistic.
Plato's pupil, Aristotle, was also a very important figure. Born in Stagira in 384, Aristotle is regarded as the most influential ancient philosopher of the sciences. Aristotle refined Callippus' geometrical and spherical concepts, and developed the geocentric
theory, which was believed for two thousand years. Aristotle believed that the sphere is the most perfect figure because when rotated to any diameter it occupies the same space and that circular motions are a sign of perfection. The spherical nature of the Earth and Universe according to Aristotle is the natural movement of Earthly matter from all places downwards, to a center, around which a sphere of matter will build up.
In Aristotle's book De Caelo (On the Heavens), he speaks of the celestial sphere, the...