A Cosmic Coincidence, Part 4: Coincidence or Destiny?

I began this four-part tale by calling the collusion of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler an unlikely cosmic coincidence. A long string of improbable incidents had to occur, one by one, to gradually draw together these extremely different people. If any one event had not happened, the chain that bound them together would never have formed. Any one link missing: no partnership.

When they were young men, several alternative events might have occurred, to prevent their ever meeting. Tycho’s nose-severing duel came very close to ending his life. There was enormous pressure on him by his family to follow the noble Danish, non-astronomer path. Kepler had several brushes with death as a child. Many plagues periodically ran rampant through his part of 16th century Europe. He was extremely lucky to have gotten his scholarship; his deep poverty otherwise would have relegated him to a sad destiny.

In the middle of their respective careers—before they met—there were numerous occasions when the imminent partnership could have gotten derailed. Both of them had a patron suddenly appear, just when their careers were threatening to dwindle, which reenergized them. Both of them were obsessed with precision. Had either one accepted less than the best, their collaboration would never have happened; they literally required one another.

They both became exiled from their homeland—pointing their paths towards each other. Kepler’s first book nearly missed getting to Tycho—which would have prevented the dashing Dane from learning about this obscure math teacher in the boondocks of Austria. Both of them judiciously ducked the inquisitional eye of the Catholic Church—unlike Galileo, who later ran afoul of the pope. If either Tycho or Kepler had been blocked in mid stride, their fabulous synergism would not have happened.

So was their collaboration really coincidental, or was it destiny? Of course, this question is unanswerable. And it’s only we humans—with our ability to peer into the past and connect the dots—who read chance or fate into unfolding events. To all of our fellow creatures—who are more open to and engaged in the present moment—things are just as they are. No mystery, no guiding hand.

If Tycho and Kepler had not partnered to bring about their astronomical revolution, others would have done it—albeit at a later date. On the other hand, if the story of an Earth-centered universe had not been so entrenched for nearly two millennia, the understanding our duo came to would likely have been discovered long before them, by other pioneers. The truth of our world is not owned by any one person, partnership, or institution. It will become known to us in due time—despite our stumbling ways of seeking it.