..................................................................................................................................................
Man of Science, Man of God
.
BY CHRISTINE DAO *
Who: Isaac Newton
What: Father of Universal Gravitation
When: January 4, 1643 - March 31, 1727
Where: Woolsthorpe, a hamlet of Lincolnshire, England
What: Father of Universal Gravitation
When: January 4, 1643 - March 31, 1727
Where: Woolsthorpe, a hamlet of Lincolnshire, England
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.1
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.1
Sir Isaac Newton,
perhaps the most influential scientist of all time, came from very humble
beginnings.
The Julian calendar
places his birthday on Christmas 1642, before which his father, John Newton,
died at the age of 36.
He was born
premature and possibly had Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, which could
explain his later ability to intensely focus on specific subject matters.
His mother
remarried and sent him at age three to live with his maternal grandmother.
At 12 he was sent
to The King's School, an educational institution for boys in Grantham,
Lincolnshire.
Biographer N. W.
Chittenden recounts that the young Newton was not a good student at first.
However, after
losing in a fight against the student ranked just above him, he applied himself
to his studies until not only did he outrank his offender, but everyone else in
his class.
When he was 15, his
mother was widowed again and for financial purposes removed him from school to
manage a farm.
He disliked the
work and often neglected his duties, taking advantage of market trips into
Grantham to read and study.
His mother was
persuaded to send him back to school to complete his education.
In 1661 at the age
of 18, he entered Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.
In 1665, the young
scientist invented the generalized binomial theorem and began developing the
mathematical theory that would later become calculus. He received his Bachelor
of Arts degree later that year, shortly after which the university was closed
as a precaution against the Great Plague.
Newton returned to
his home in Woolsthorpe to continue his work in calculus, optics, and the law
of gravitation, as well as dabbling in some alchemy in the spirit of Robert
Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist.
He returned to
Cambridge in 1668 and earned Master of Arts recognition and the Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics position a year later.
The Royal Society
took interest in his optics works, particularly his investigations into the
refraction of light, as well as the reflecting telescope he invented (today
known as a Newtonian telescope).
Newton hesitated to
publicize his mathematical studies for fear of more opposition.
But in 1687, he
published the first edition of his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica (later translated in 1825 as The Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy), considered today to be the single
greatest work in the history of science.
In it, he described
universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, derived from Kepler's Laws.
Though he was and
still is renowned for his scientific pursuits, Newton was a serious student of
the Bible and published several theological works.
Even in his
famed Principia, Newton exhibited his dedication to God.
This most beautiful
system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and
dominion of an intelligent and powerful 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 "pantokrator,"
or Universal Ruler....2
Scientific inquiry,
which then existed as Natural Philosophy, could not exist apart from "the Maker,"
according to Newton.
In fact, science
was the perfect realm in which to discuss God.
Since every
particle of space is always, and every indivisible moment of
duration is everywhere, certainly the Maker and Lord of all things
cannot be never and nowhere....
God is the same
God, always and everywhere.
He is omnipresent
not virtually only, but also substantially; for
virtue cannot subsist without substance.…
It is allowed by
all that the Supreme God exists necessarily; and by the same necessity he exists always and everywhere....
And thus much
concerning God; to discourse of whom from the appearance of things, does
certainly belong to Natural Philosophy.3
Though he lived
before Darwin, Newton was not unacquainted with the atheistic evolutionary
theory on origins. He was convinced against it and wrote:
Blind metaphysical
necessity, which is certainly the same always and everywhere, could produce no
variety of things.
All that diversity
of natural things which we find suited to different times and places could
arise from nothing but the ideas and will of a Being, necessarily existing.4
In the winter of
1692, Newton suffered the loss of a scientific manuscript 20 years in the
making, which triggered a nervous breakdown that lasted almost two years.
When he emerged
from it, his scholastic work attracted royal attention, and he was appointed as
warden and later master of the Royal Mint.
Although the
appointments were sinecures, he took his work seriously, eventually retiring
from his professorship at Cambridge in order to focus on the Mint.
He made significant
contributions to currency reform and the convictions of counterfeiters and
clippers (who clipped the edges of coins, devaluing the currency), crimes
considered high treason.
His work at the
Royal Mint, rather than his scientific achievements, earned him knighthood from
Queen Anne in 1705.
Other honors
included being elected a member of the French Académie des Sciences in 1699,
and becoming President of the Royal Society in 1703.
He never married,
and though he died without a will, he had already given much of his estate to
his nieces and nephews.
He also endowed a
professorship at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and biographers noted
that he gave liberally to the poor throughout his life.
Newton died in
March 1727 and was interred at Westminster Abbey in London.
Although in the popular imagination he is most closely
associated with an apple and the law of gravity, Newton himself is quoted as
saying, "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."5
References
1.
Epitaph for Newton's grave, composed by English poet Alexander
Pope.
2.
Newton, I. General Scholium. Translated by Motte, A. 1825. Newton's
Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. New York:
Daniel Adee, 501. The Greek word pantokrator is most often
translated as "Almighty" in the King James Version.
3.
Ibid, 505-506.
4.
Ibid, 506.
5.
Tiner, J. H. 1975. Isaac Newton: Inventor, Scientist and
Teacher. Milford, MI: Mott Media.
* Ms. Dao is Assistant Editor.
The
Institute for Creation Research (ICR) wants people to know that God’s Word
can be trusted in everything it speaks about—from how and why we were made, to
how the universe was formed, to how we can know God and receive all He has
planned for us.
After 50
years of ministry, ICR remains a leader in scientific research within the
context of biblical creation. Founded by Dr. Henry Morris in 1970, ICR exists
to conduct scientific research within the realms of origins and Earth history,
and then to educate the public both formally and informally through
professional training programs, through conferences and seminars around the
country, and through books, magazines, and media presentations.
No comments:
Post a Comment