This is mostly fantasy. It was accepted because it worked. There was no grand cultural or religious reason. Just boring old “it works”.

You can still use the algamest if you’d like to plot the paths of planets. John Conway pointed this out to me in one of his wonderful books. It’s pretty good actually. Which is why it was used for so long.

Fun to suggest it was some weird religious thing though. I’m sure the author felt good about sticking it to those stupid Christian’s, though Copernicus was a Christian so that train of thought seems nonsensical.