Seiler on Science

Thoughts on the history of science, with a special focus on the relationship between religion and science through history, all coming from an Objectivist perspective. ("Seiler" is pronounced "Sy-ler")

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Location: Virginia, United States

Monday, January 30, 2012

How religious was Isaac Newton?


Isaac Newton was the greatest scientist in history, and his discoveries of the laws of motion and universal gravitation provided a vivid example of the power of reason to grasp the nature of reality.  This example served as inspiration for the thinkers of the 18th-century Enlightenment. The Enlightenment philosophes subjected religion to an unprecedented rational scrutiny, many of them rejecting Christianity for deism and a few even turning to atheism.

Given this chain of events, it was natural for many to assume that Newton could not have been very religious; after all, he was the Enlightenment's exemplar of reason. But it turns out that Newton thought about religion a great deal, and his private manuscripts on theology are voluminous, totaling four million words. It has been only in the past century that Newton's religious writings have been examined in depth, and this has yielded a significantly better understanding of Newton's beliefs.

Newton accepted many of the conventional religious beliefs of the English Puritan culture in which he was raised: "Newton trusted the Bible [except for certain "corruptions"] and often took it literally, especially prophetic texts from Daniel and Revelation. He believed in predestination, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the future resurrection of the faithful, and the millennial kingdom ruled by Christ." (Davis, p. 118) He even calculated a possible starting date for the events of the Apocalypse: the year 2060 AD.

After discovering the universal law of gravitation, Newton did not believe that the gravitational attraction of bodies is a power inherent in matter. He saw the bodies as controlled by God's will or God's agent.

There are also elements in Newton's manuscripts which suggest something more rational in his approach to religion, which led to his rejection of several church doctrines.  Newton had contempt for what he called superstition and the worship of the mysterious:  "It is the temper of the hot and superstitious part of mankind in matters of religion ever to be fond of mysteries, and for that reason to like best what they understand least."  (quoted in Westfall, p. 193)

The Christian doctrine that was most disturbing to Newton was the Trinity — the idea that God is three persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) who are all fully God, while at the same time there is only one God. This struck Newton as superstitious and irrational. He believed that there is simply one God, along with various subordinates. Jesus was God's son, and had a special divine status, but Jesus was not God. Newton came to the conclusion that Christianity — and the Bible itself — had been corrupted by the supporters of the Trinity in the early Christian church.  He worked exhaustively to identify the specific Biblical passages that he considered fraudulent.

For Newton to make public his rejection of the Trinity would have been illegal in 17th-century England (and would have, at the very least, destroyed his university career), so he shared his religious writings and opinions with only a few close friends.

One fact that clearly emerges from Newton's religious writings is his active-minded approach. Newton was not content to simply accept official Church teachings as the truth. He had to examine them; he had to read and master the Bible for himself; he had to study Church history for himself. He had to decide which church doctrines he agreed with and which he did not. As one biographer has pointed out, the manuscripts "reveal a Newton who spent his entire adult life probing, questioning ... the received notion of Christianity." (Westfall p. 229)

What is the significance of Newton's belief in religion?

Does it prove that science and religion are fundamentally compatible?  No.

It does prove that great scientific work can be done by men who also have strong religious beliefs. But they have to keep their religion out of their science. Newton's published books on physics contain no religious arguments for his scientific conclusions, and mentions of God in these books are few and far between.

Why did Newton keep his religion out of his physics? He accepted an idea popular in the 17th century: the idea of God's two books — the book of Scripture and the book of Nature — and the necessity of keeping them separate. Newton advised that "Religion and Philosophy are to be preserved distinct. We are not to introduce divine revelations into Philosophy, nor philosophical opinions into religion." (Manuel, p. 28)

This division comes ultimately from Thomas Aquinas, with his distinction between the truths of reason and truths of faith. But that is a subject for another blog post.


References
The Religion of Isaac Newton: The Freemantle Lectures 1973, Frank E. Manuel, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1974.

"Isaac Newton", entry in Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, by Stephen Snobelen, 2003 [link]

"A Time and Times and the Dividing of Time: Isaac Newton, the Apocalypse and 2060 AD", Stephen D. Snobelen, Canadian Journal of History, Dec. 2003

"Myth 13: That Isaac Newton's Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God", Edward B. Davis, pp. 115-122 of Galileo Goes to Jail: and Other Myths about Science and Religion, edited by Ronald L. Numbers, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2009

"The Rise of Science and the Decline of Orthodox Christianity: A Study of Kepler, Descartes, and Newton", Richard S. Westfall, pp. 218-237, God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science, ed. David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1986

Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England, Richard S. Westfall, Univ of Michigan Press, 1973

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jesus was a messenger of God warning the people of one God

September 15, 2013 at 2:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jesus is the son of God, and if we pray the "Our Father"; the prayer that Jesus taught us.. we will see the solution to all our problems...

March 25, 2014 at 10:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Read Principia. There are plenty of references to G-d.

March 29, 2014 at 7:52 PM  
Blogger tonyon said...

"The religious are the firsts that not belief in God, thus the Inquisition, thus they abuse of the innocents, thus they mislead to the foolish and thus they buy to the folks (Galileo Galilei)"... IT´S TRUTH THAT RELIGION IS LIE

October 3, 2015 at 1:40 PM  
Blogger tonyon said...

"The religious are the firsts that not belief in God, thus the Inquisition, thus they abuse of the innocents, thus they mislead to the foolish and thus they buy to the folks (Galileo Galilei)"... IT´S TRUTH THAT RELIGION IS LIE

October 3, 2015 at 1:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ISAAC NEWTON WROTE: (from Wikipedia)
Vol. I, Ch. 3 : Of the vision of the Image composed of four Metals
"The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt.The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify mens' curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.

For the event of things predicted many ages before, will then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by providence.

For, as the few and obscure Prophecies concerning Christ’s first coming were for setting up the Christian religion, which all nations have since corrupted; so the many and clear Prophecies concerning the things to be done at Christ’s second coming, are not only for predicting but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness.

The event will prove the Apocalypse; and this Prophecy, thus proved and understood, will open the old Prophets, and all together will make known the true religion, and establish it. For he that will understand the old Prophets, must begin with this; but the time is not yet come for understanding them perfectly, because the main revolution predicted in them is not yet come to pass.

In the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets: and then the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever, Apoc. x. 7. xi. 15.

There is already so much of the Prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study, may see sufficient instances of God’s providence: but then the signal revolutions predicted by all the holy Prophets, will at once both turn men’s eyes upon considering the predictions, and plainly interpret them. Till then we must content ourselves with interpreting what hath been already fulfilled.

Amongst the Interpreters of the last age there to scarce one of note who hath not made some discovery worth knowing; and thence I seem to gather that God is about opening these mysteries. The success of others put me upon considering it; and if I have done any thing which may be useful to following writers, I have my design."
In Mr. Newtons' own words, he believed God had designed a method to reveal itself.

October 7, 2015 at 9:15 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

And yet still, like all men, he was wrong.
He formulated methods of attempting to cite god as material and infinite, 2 things which cannot by definition of material, exist unless the material simply is, which defies the concept of a sentient singular being and spits in the very face of physics itself.

He was a great man, but religion was not the reason for his brilliance, only a minor catalyst.

February 14, 2016 at 10:32 PM  
Blogger Allen jeley said...

This article great helped him and clear my physics equation concepts and i agree with you because Newton was the greatest scientist thanks for share it mph personal statement .

March 16, 2016 at 12:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lee Woo said: "To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny."

Lee, first of all let me correct you. Atheists do not claim that god is not real. We simply say there is no evidence that makes that claim believable and so do not accept it as truth. It does not take great faith to accept truth based on demonstrable scientific evidence, that is called going by the facts. Also, the amount of faith or conviction you have in something is in no way indicative of wether is true or not.

My assumption is you claim god and the bible to be true, well how do you know? What demonstrable evidence do you have to back up your claims? If you say that the bible tells you so, you are simply going by an old book. In that case, why do you not believe any of the other many religions that have old books claiming theirs to be absolute truth? How do you distuingish true from false in that matter?

If you claim something to be true, you must provide demonstrable evidence to back it up. Simply saying God or the bible sais so, will not do. If you do, it is you who is going by faith, not the atheists.

April 9, 2017 at 2:49 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I think you confuses Atheism with Agnosticism

April 12, 2017 at 6:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Prophetic proof for the atheist that God Is
Ezekiel 38:21 (ESV)
I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around the, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them a nation on the land on the mountains of Israel. And they shall be my people and shall no longer be two nations, and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

There are quite a few prophecies that discuss how the Lord will gather His people form among the nations and return them back to Israel (the Promised Land) in the Bible.

The first part of the above noted prophecy has begun to be fulfilled since 1948 when Israel once again became a sovereign nation.

To my knowledge there has never been a single body of people, that once conquered and destroyed or dispersed, that have ever been returned to their home land as the Jews.

The fulfillment of this prophecy is just one piece of "demonstrable proof" that God is Who He says He Is....The I Am

August 7, 2017 at 12:31 PM  
Blogger Stephen said...

Jesus IS God. God even called Jesus God. Did 'the world love Newton?". Just know, if the world hates you , it hated Me First.

Newton's issue was the catholic church , another corrupt governmental belief system.

Then the little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them; and the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven” belongs to such as these.

For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father”[a]?

Or again,

“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son”[b]?

6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship Him.”

But about the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
Therefore God, Your God, has set You above Your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

He (God)also says,

“In the beginning, Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
11 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
12 You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.”

January 19, 2018 at 5:20 AM  
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