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It has been noted that when the Royal Society was formed in 1662, many in the nucleus group were Puritans. This was the century of the Puritans and Newton was part of the movement. Puritanism had psychological effects on Newton which were related to his scientific endeavor.
In the history of science much attention is paid to the symbiotic relationship between Puritanism and science. First of all the Puritan had the personal qualities that serve any scientist well, such as practicality, orderliness, discipline and scrupulosity. His powers of observation for surveying the Scriptures literally served equally well for surveying and describing nature. The Christian view that God established a world order which obeys His ordinances, decrees and laws was only a step away from asking whether these laws can be discovered by observing nature.
There is another aspect about the English Puritans that is equally important for understanding the Puritan Isaac Newton. The Puritans inherited a Calvinistic distaste for the papacy, and with Newton, part of this distaste manifests itself in his arguments with Jesuit writers. We should also keep in mind that the Jesuits were the main source of scientific and historical ideas which came out of China. Especially in the realm of Jesuit-assembled chronologies, Newton felt that the Chinese records erred seriously. This was very similar to the fight Galileo had with the Roman Catholic Church and how Calvin and his interpretation of scripture and the Protestants supported Galileo.
Source: http://www.creationism.org/symposium/symp6no3.htm
Not only did Newton's Christian Puritan worldview result in the discovery of modern day science, but it appears he was a young earth six day creationist as well.
In a letter to Hugh Ross dated 1/23/04, Dr Carl Wieland stated:
"...You say that Newton referred to the use by many of his respected contemporaries of those verses in Proverbs, Job, and Psalms to support the great antiquity of Earth. First of all, this is a relative termwe believe that the world is of great antiquity tooas ancient as 6,000 years old! It is fallacious to take Hebrew terms of antiquity, which refer to ages comparable with mans existence on earth, and import modern uniformitarian ideas of age into them.
However, in that portion of his correspondence referring to those verses (which incidentally refers to the antiquity of the mountains and hills, not the whole earth), Newton says nothing at all about any contemporaries. Even more importantly, you omitted to mention that Newtons reference to those verses was saying that he, Newton, would not use those verses to support antiquity.
This thus reflects, at the very least, a most careless reading of the Newton correspondence with Burnet. And Newton even indicates near the end of his 1681 letter to Burnet what his own inclination is: to follow Ex. 20:811 and the witness of the prophets, Jesus, the apostles and the church down to his day (including the theologians) in believing in literal six days."
Of course this would be very consistent with Newton's Christian Creationist worldview.
You can find a complete copy of Hugh Ross' and Dr Carl Wieland's letters one of my favorite website, Answers In Genesis (AIG).
In the history of science much attention is paid to the symbiotic relationship between Puritanism and science. First of all the Puritan had the personal qualities that serve any scientist well, such as practicality, orderliness, discipline and scrupulosity. His powers of observation for surveying the Scriptures literally served equally well for surveying and describing nature. The Christian view that God established a world order which obeys His ordinances, decrees and laws was only a step away from asking whether these laws can be discovered by observing nature.
There is another aspect about the English Puritans that is equally important for understanding the Puritan Isaac Newton. The Puritans inherited a Calvinistic distaste for the papacy, and with Newton, part of this distaste manifests itself in his arguments with Jesuit writers. We should also keep in mind that the Jesuits were the main source of scientific and historical ideas which came out of China. Especially in the realm of Jesuit-assembled chronologies, Newton felt that the Chinese records erred seriously. This was very similar to the fight Galileo had with the Roman Catholic Church and how Calvin and his interpretation of scripture and the Protestants supported Galileo.
Source: http://www.creationism.org/symposium/symp6no3.htm
Not only did Newton's Christian Puritan worldview result in the discovery of modern day science, but it appears he was a young earth six day creationist as well.
In a letter to Hugh Ross dated 1/23/04, Dr Carl Wieland stated:
"...You say that Newton referred to the use by many of his respected contemporaries of those verses in Proverbs, Job, and Psalms to support the great antiquity of Earth. First of all, this is a relative termwe believe that the world is of great antiquity tooas ancient as 6,000 years old! It is fallacious to take Hebrew terms of antiquity, which refer to ages comparable with mans existence on earth, and import modern uniformitarian ideas of age into them.
However, in that portion of his correspondence referring to those verses (which incidentally refers to the antiquity of the mountains and hills, not the whole earth), Newton says nothing at all about any contemporaries. Even more importantly, you omitted to mention that Newtons reference to those verses was saying that he, Newton, would not use those verses to support antiquity.
This thus reflects, at the very least, a most careless reading of the Newton correspondence with Burnet. And Newton even indicates near the end of his 1681 letter to Burnet what his own inclination is: to follow Ex. 20:811 and the witness of the prophets, Jesus, the apostles and the church down to his day (including the theologians) in believing in literal six days."
Of course this would be very consistent with Newton's Christian Creationist worldview.
You can find a complete copy of Hugh Ross' and Dr Carl Wieland's letters one of my favorite website, Answers In Genesis (AIG).