The more I think of this topic, the more appalled I am at my hubris in proposing it. “Really, Mr. Donahue (you might be thinking), “aren’t you just using Kepler’s name to throw out your own rash thoughts into an arena in which you have no business contending?”
As for the arena, I have no defense, other than that here at St. John’s we routinely contend in contests where, by standards accepted elsewhere, we have no formal qualifications. We do it anyway, unapologetically. We do not expect to establish new truths, nor to overthrow established theories. But we do hope that in this rather mad undertaking we may gain for ourselves a little more understanding, both of the amazing universe we live in and the powerful thinkers and their remarkable insights into that universe.