Kepler’s Courage

Kepler spent many years of his life trying to prove a hypothesis

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer, born in 1571. He lived in a time when astronomy and astrology were merged into a single field of study and he excelled prolifically, in both disciplines. From the time of his boyhood, he was educated to be a member of the Lutheran clergy, but instead he found work as a teacher. During one of his classroom lectures, it occurred to him that the orbits of the six planets (only Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were known at the time) were spaced in just such a way that there seemed to be a geometrical relationship between them. He thought of the five “regular” or “platonic” solids (discovered by ancient Greek thinkers, like Pythagoras and Plato) whose sides were regular polygons and theorized that these were the invisible support structures for the solar system.

Kepler spent many years of his life trying to prove his hypothesis. He labored for countless hours to construct three dimensional models of the spheres of the six planets nested within the five regular solids, but it was all for naught. He was not able to make his theory work mathematically with the available data on the orbits of the planets. He sought the most precise data available in his time from Tycho Brahe, a Danish nobleman, who was the Imperial Mathematician in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, but even the most precise observations of the motions of the planets did not help. His problem was that he, along with every other astronomer of his time, assumed that the planets orbit the sun in a perfect circular motion. After many more years of painstaking observation and calculation, Kepler discovered that the orbits of the planets are elliptical, rather and circular.

He had the courage to admit when it was proven to be false

The thing about Johannes Kepler that impresses me is that, even after he had committed the majority of his professional life to one specific idea, he had the courage to admit it, when it was proven to be false. As a gospel preacher, I talk to numerous souls about all kinds of matters pertaining to religion. I have found that most everyone I talk to has their own ideas about God, the church, salvation, and so forth. But, few people have the courage to admit it, when their own pet theories about religion are proven wrong. People will cling to false doctrines and practices, like a drowning man clinging to a piece of his shattered boat— afraid to let go and grab the lifeline rescuers have thrown him. What a tragic situation!

We must not fear the truth

We must not be afraid of the truth, no matter what the truth may be. If God’s Word says something that contradicts what we have always believed, we must abandon our false beliefs post haste, lest we fall victim to vain religion (Matthew 15:13). Whenever I begin a new study with one who is not a member of the church, I usually say something like this: “At some point in our studies together, we are bound to encounter something in the Bible, which contradicts things that you have always believed. At that point, you will have to make a decision: are you going to do what you think is right, or are you going to do what you know the Bible says is right?” People of the modern era have a problem accepting the authority of the Bible. Most of the time, that is the first thing you have to discuss with them.

Another thing that impresses me about Johannes Kepler is his general attitude toward scientific discovery. He was not an atheist, like many modern scientists, but rather he believed the Biblical account of creation and he saw his mission as a scientist as being one of seeking to understand the mysteries of God’s creation. In his Mysterium Cosmographicum, Kepler wrote, “We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens…The diversity of the phenomena of Nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.”

Do we pause to give God the credit for our blessings?

Kepler went on to calculate the elliptical pattern of the orbits of the planets and establish three laws of planetary motion, in the waning years of his life. Although some viewed his work as heretical, Kepler viewed his discoveries as being guided by the providence of God. What a wonderful attitude! How many times do we pause to give God the credit for all the blessings we have in our lives? Kepler thanked God for the privilege of making the discoveries he made in his lifetime. Let us not neglect to thank God for all of the great that we have done with our lives. As Paul put it, in his sermon on Mars’ Hill, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). It is a worthy goal for us to strive for curiosity, courage, and conviction, in this life.