Theory guides, experiment decides.
Kepler, often known today for his discovery that planetary orbits are elliptical and not circular, spent most of his life thinking about theology, having studied at the seminary in Tübingen in Germany.
The textbook goes on to state in its own words that
Based on the assumption that the universe is orderly enough to be understood, a method of observation and rules for reasoning and making predictions have been formulated.
The clear philosophical import of this text is the “assumption” that the universe is rational, that it follows the laws of algebra and geometry, and eventually, the laws of chemistry and physics. The universe, then, has been designed around a set of principles - according, at least, to the current thinking in physics departments at the nation’s universities. Further, there are “rules” for reasoning.
The idea that there are rules for reasoning, in physics at least, goes back as far as the theologian Isaac Newton. Outside of physics, in pure mathematics and logic, the idea is even older. This is the foundation of observational and empirical science as we now know it. Isaac Newton, because of his discovery of mathematical truths like the theorems and principles of calculus, and because of his discovery of physical laws like gravitation, spent most of his scholarly effort analyzing, and wrote most of his publications about, the Bible.
We see, from the works of men like Kepler and Newton, that there is a thick tangle where philosophy, mathematics, natural observational sciences, and theology meet. Assumptions about the possibility of phenomena in the universe being subject to mathematical modeling come very near expressing certain aspects or properties of God.
