The other day I got to watch the documentary on PBS - Newton’s Dark Secrets. I usually don’t get time to watch TV, so this was a rare treat.
I remember that the Fourth Head of the Ahmadiyya Community, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, in some of his question answer sessions mentioned that the more he reads Newton the more he believes that he believed in one God and considered the Cristian belief of holy trinity contradictory to his study of science. I have heard that Dr. Abdus Salam shared his views on Newton. Though I have always taught in school(s) that the Western scientists usually have only two beliefs, either agnostic or atheists, so I took the claims of Newton’s religious belief sceptically.
Its a good thing that I watched that documentary because in it, they not only mentioned that Newton’s papers suggest that he didn’t believe in Trinity but also that he actually did believe in God because from his studies on the universe, he could only come to the conclusion that this universe had a God. The same argument referred to God’s existence in Quran and believers are urged to ponder on.
The documentary also claimed that Newton owned 30 bibles and used to comb through it like any scientific journal. And that unlike the more common belief among many academics of this age, he believed religion and science to go hand in hand.
Though I have always taught in school(s) that the Western scientists usually have only two beliefs, either agnostic or atheists, so I took the claims of Newton's religious belief sceptically.<<<
huh? which school have u been going to? as far as I know, most western scientists in previous centuries have been quite religious people (mostly catholic)
NeSCio, my European educated friend, in the Pakistani Education system only Muslim scientists religious beliefs are underscored, people like Newton and Einstein were just hard working geniuses. In US, nationality of a scholar is always mentioned, not his views on sacraments.
Newton's belief in God is justified because his discoveries/laws in classical mechanics have magical constants, and absolute and complete accuracies, making the universe a precise clockwork model of some higher being.
We now "know" that his laws and theories aren't true, but are good enough approximations of the chaotic truth which hold good in most scenarios the avg. human would be faced with. i doubt Newton would believe in even one God if he were alive today.
I also watched the above-mentioned documentary, and I found it very interesting. A couple of points that I found interesting:
Newton believed that the world will come to an end in 2060. The whole universe is very mathematical, and everything makes sense in a numerical way, fibonacci numbers being a perfect example. Newton used his immense knowledge of numbers and religious scriptures to come up with the year 2060. If anyone watched Dr. Shahid Masood's 4 part documentary on this topic few years ago (also available on google video), he was also leaning towards the conclusion that qiyamat (doomsday) is less than 100 years away. Ofcourse, the exact time is known only to God.
He studied and researched for hours and hours, typically 18 hours every day. Job and finances were not an issue, so he didn't have to devote time to those.
He looked into religious scriptures, specially bible. I have heard from another source that he also looked into quran, but not 100% sure.
Newton's belief in God is justified because his discoveries/laws in classical mechanics have magical constants, and absolute and complete accuracies, making the universe a precise clockwork model of some higher being.
We now "know" that his laws and theories aren't true, but are good enough approximations of the chaotic truth which hold good in most scenarios the avg. human would be faced with. i doubt Newton would believe in even one God if he were alive today.
I personally feel the level of his research would be different and IMHO it would have been just the opposite as the belief in God amongst the scientists is someting this century will surely talk about.