Posted by Nick Hall (195.74.122.242) on August 31, 2003 at 17:14:42:
In Reply to: Re: God and Bessler posted by Pete on August 31, 2003 at 02:38:05:
Pete wrote:
: Nick,
: What's your view on Newton+God?
That's an interesting one!
Newton was a deist - which view generally sees God as the initial cause of everything, but who then more or less left things to run 'of themselves' (one is tempted to say "per se" - i.e. God is the creator of the cosmic 'perpetuum mobile'!!).
He believed that the Bible contained 'hidden' plans such that if you knew the code, you could decypher these plans and see God's blueprint for the future. He saw huge significance in some of the potentially most obscure Old Testament prophetic passages (Ezekiel for example).
A recent biography dubbed Newton "The Last Sorcerer" - certainly the man put a lot of energy into trying to transmute base metals into Gold etc.
He generally had to keep quiet about his deism and alchemy - to admit publically to these could, in those days, have been grounds to exclude him from academic life. Later biographers generally glossed over these views, feeling that they detracted from his greatness in more scientific fields. (Similarly, as John Collins discovered, biographers of Leibnitz rarely mentioned the latter's interest in Bessler, or the fact that he _personally_ visited Bessler and saw his wheel!)
Regarding gravity, Newton believed that God created Christ to be the 'superintendant of gravity' - taking his lead from a New Testament passage which says that "In Christ, all things hold together".
Regarding the possibility of extracting energy from gravity, he pondered whether the "rays fo gravity might be deflected" using certain materials. Equally he believed that those who sought for perpetual motion were on a fruitless quest - trying to get something for nothing.
A good book to read on Newton is this more recent biography:
Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer (Helix Books)by Michael White (It is on Amazon)
Nick