The name of Johann Kepler (1571-1630) may not be a household name to many of you, but in the world of astronomy his name is treated with reverence, since he is regarded as the father of modern astronomy. When Kepler was born the telescope had not yet been invented, (it wasn’t until 1609 that Galileo became the first person to point a telescope skyward) but that didn’t stop this remarkable scientific Genius from searching the heavens and making one amazing discovery after another. Perhaps his greatest achievement was discovering the three laws of planetary motion and conclusively demonstrating the heliocentricity of our solar system. In addition, he is also considered the father of another scientific discipline – modern optics.
Sadly, many astronomers when they gaze into a brilliant star filled sky today don’t quite appreciate the divine Creator who placed all those stars in orbit as Kepler did 400 years ago. Most astronomers today are secular and don’t appreciate what we read in (Psalm 19:1): “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” To Kepler the heavens, he believed, displayed a wonderful sense of harmony and he felt that God had given him a rare talent to find in mathematical terms the harmony in creation he so often meditated on when looking up into the heavens.
Kepler was a strong Bible believing Christian and he was careful to give God all the glory through his magnificent discoveries. In fact he once said: “Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God.”1 Mulfinger shares this insightful comment to give us a glimpse into Kepler’s godly nature: “Kepler’s name lives on in history. His name has been immortalized by his three laws of planetary motion, a prominent crater on the moon has been named in his honor, and his native Germany has paid him homage by erecting monuments in Regensburg and Weil der Stadt. Any fame he achieved, however, was simply a by-product of his efforts to glorify God’s name.”2
While many of today’s modern astronomers would have you to believe that God is not needed to explain the wonders of our amazing universe some of our great early men in this field would strongly disagree. For example, I love the quote from the famous English astronomer Sir William Hershel (1738-1822) who once said: “The undevout astronomer must be mad.”3 And not to be outdone his son Sir John Hershel (1792-1871), another great English astronomer, added: “All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths that come from on high, and contained in the sacred writings.”4
As one studies the early history of some of our greatest astronomers, they will see that many of them had a reverence for the stars in heaven and just knew that an all-powerful and loving God must have put them in place. It is well known that Kepler when asked, when he was doing his astronomical researches, what he was doing, said, he was merely “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” Of all the many great scientists of the past 500 years few have been as careful to give God all the glory for their talents and discoveries as Johann Kepler.
1 George Mulfinger & Julia Mulfinger Orozco, Christian Men of Science. (Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International, 2001), p. 22.
2 Ibid. p. 22.
3 BrainyQuote.com: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/william_herschel_215940
4 Christianity.com: https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/john-herschel-laid-to-rest-beside-newton-11630557.html