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's 1689 portrait]] The Law Of Gravity became Sir Isaac Newton 's best-known discovery. Newton warned against using it to view the universe as a mere machine, like a great clock. He said: Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done. This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being. … This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called “Lord God” παντοκρατωρ {Link without Title} , or “Universal Ruler”. … The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect. Opposition to godliness is atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors. Though he is better known for his love of Science , the Bible was Sir Isaac Newton's greatest passion. He devoted more time to the study of Scripture than to science, and said, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily." He spent a great deal of time trying to discover Hidden Messages Within The Bible . Newton is generally thought to have been as God" in a list of "Idolatria" in his theological notebook. In a minority view, T.C. Pfizenmaier argued that he held closer to the Eastern Orthodox view of the Trinity rather than the Western one held by Roman Catholic s, Anglican s and Protestant s. In his final days Newton refused the sacrament of the Church Of England . Newton and Boyle ’s mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers clergy as well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians. The clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way in which to combat the emotional and mystical superlatives of superstitious enthusiasm, as well as the threat of atheism. The attacks made against pre- Enlightenment Magical Thinking , and the Mystical elements of Christianity , were given their foundation with Boyle’s mechanical conception of the universe. Newton gave Boyle’s ideas their completion through Mathematical Proof s, and more importantly was very successful in popularizing them. Newton refashioned the world governed by an interventionist God into a world crafted by a God that designs along rational and universal principles. These principles were available for all people to discover, allowed man to pursue his own aims fruitfully in this life, not the next, and to perfect himself with his own rational powers. The perceived ability of Newtonians to explain the world, both physical and social, through logical calculations alone is the crucial idea in the disenchantment of Christianity. Newton saw God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation. But the unforeseen theological consequence of his conception of God, as Leibniz pointed out, was that God was now entirely removed from the world’s affairs, since the need for intervention would only evidence some imperfection in God’s creation, something impossible for a perfect and omnipotent creator. Newton's view has been considered to be close to Deism but differed in that he invoked God as a special physical cause to keep the planets in orbits. On the other hand, Latitudinarian and Newtonian ideas taken too far resulted in the millenarians, a religious faction dedicated to the concept of a mechanical universe, but finding in it the same enthusiasm and mysticism that the Enlightenment had fought so hard to extinguish. Newton himself may have had some interest in Millenarianism as he wrote about both the Book Of Daniel and the Book Of Revelation in his Observations Upon the Prophecies . In a manuscript he wrote in 1704 in which he describes his attempts to extract scientific information from the Bible, he estimated that the world would end no earlier than 2060. In predicting this he said, "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail." Newton’s conception of the physical world provided a stable model of the natural world that would reinforce stability and harmony in the civic world. NOTES |
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