Kepler's Theory Of Astrology

Modern Science is largely rooted in ancient traditions. Despite this fact, I saw the difference between the modern and ancient Science while watching the videos in class. First, modern Science strictly follows the scientific method during experiments. Thus every conclusion derived had a scientific validity. For example is in the case of Astrology. Though for me, the idea of astrology is absurd; it has played a vital part during the ancient times. And for years, up until now, it has some sort of an impact in the lives of some people. Horoscopes are still quite common and can be found in the daily newspapers.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, astrology is the divination of the supposed influences of the stars and planets on human affairs

Johanness Kepler is a key figure during the seventeenth century. He believed in his theory of the geometrical relationship between the orbits of the planets. And later on, I learned that his attempts to explain the planetary motions into five perfect solid shapes failed. It was the data of Tycho Brahe, a Danish nobleman and astronomer, which helped Kepler discover the three major laws of planetary motion. These data were accurate and broad astronomical and planetary observations that support his predictions that the planetary orbits were ellipse rather than his former guess- circle and the planets move with the Sun at one focus. The second law is the “area law” and the third is the “harmonic law”. In Kepler’s life, I saw that he labored for decades for a wrong assumption- that the orbits of the planet were determined by the shapes of the five perfect solids and discovered the three laws of motion almost by accident. I guess that he cannot have this conclusion without the data provided by Tycho

Many important forerunners of Science were Christians, and they viewed their works as their way of understanding the mind of God. Unlike my previous view that Science and Christianity are in conflict with each other, I realized that in many subtle ways Science continues to reflect Christianity. Going back to Johaness Kepler, he was an “unorthodox” Lutheran. His strong theological convictions made him to find a connection between the physical and the spiritual things. His “scientific discoveries” led him to believe that he discovered God’s geometrical plan for the universe. However because of Christianity or more likely because of Catholicism, many great scientists were persecuted because of their scientific views and often branded as heretics. Fearing death, they can only conduct experiment in secret. Thus the knowledge they tend to have acquired remains in secret. I am thankful that I am living in the 21st century. I realized that I am quite lucky that data (knowledge) are accessible now unlike before and it is also sad that because of this I took them for