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Sir Isaac Newton: The world Will End In 2060

Posted by timothy on from the this-just-in dept.

Rikardon writes "A professor at King's College in Halifax has discovered, among the papers of Sir Isaac Newton, a prediction by this 'most influential scientist who ever lived' that the world would end in 2060. Those narrow-minded souls who still believe that devout religious faith is incompatible with fervent scientific inquiry are probably unaware that Newton 'was a theologian who wrote well over a million words on Biblical subjects,' and who devoted 'something like 55 to 60 years' studying the Book of Revelation."

5 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Here's my crazy ass theory.... by Dr.+Bent · · Score: 3, Interesting
    From my website

    Theory #29 - Information theory 101

    All belief systems, from Catholicism to Physics to Astrology, are essentially the same. To build a belief system, you first need axioms. These are the facts that you take for granted. They do not need to be proven, usually because they cannot be. They form the foundation of your belief system and without them (all of them) the system will not hold up.

    An example of an Axiom is "God is omniscient and omnipotent". It cannot be proven true or false by logical or experimental means. Indeed, experiments themselves are based on a scientific Axiom; that all phenomena are repeatable, given their causes can be re-created. This is not necessarily true in, say, the Christian belief system, where God can cause miracles to occur once and never again.

    Once you have your set of Axioms, you can start to build your rule base. Rules are what make your system useful. All your rules must be based on either axioms or other rules. If any of your rules contradict each other, then either your logic is flawed, or one (or more) of your axioms are contradictory and must be changed (along with all the rules based off that axiom).

    The reason humans build belief systems is to add order to a chaotic world. By building a mental construct that says 'Here are the rules' these systems allow humans to cope with each other, our environment, and ourselves with some degree of certainty. However, it is important to remember that ALL belief systems are simply mental constructs designed to form the world into a model that we can understand. A rose is what it is regardless of what we call it, or what significance we place on it's existence.

    1. Re:Here's my crazy ass theory.... by HorsePunchKid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One reason that some more "secular" people think they're on firmer philosophical ground than the more religious-minded is that they think their axioms are more fundamental. There's this concept of "first principles" in mathematics (which is what physics is based on, or maybe the other way around, whichever you like). I can't seem to find good information through Google, but I think the idea is that these principles are something you can "know" a priori. One problem I have with some religions is that they seem to be set up so that if you weren't raised in a society that already had all of the foundations of the religion documented, you would have no way of discovering it or coming to believe in it (consider the over-used "child growing up in the jungle away from civilization", as a thought experiment). From a sort of pragmatic perspective, the axiom of "use your hands to get food" is much more productive an axiom than "find words to praise your deity", and I guess the idea would be that these more pragmatic axioms are much more closely related to mathematical or physical axioms than the religious ones seem to be. Anyway, I don't want to go on about this, since it is pretty far off-topic (and I'm not exactly presenting it as a well-thought-out argument), but I hope that's some food for thought or discussion.

      --
      Steven N. Severinghaus
  2. newton had his off decades... by jimbis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Please remember that Newton had lengthy periods of what can charitably be described as "screaming nervous breakdowns". He spent far too long losing himself in alchemy and frantic attempts to interpret the book of revalations etc.

  3. I stumbled..... by auferstehung · · Score: 2, Interesting

    on some of Sir Isaac's theological ramblings while exploring the library stacks in college. It is amazing how someone who is absolutely brilliant in one area can make a complete ass of himself in another.

    For those who would like a taste of the wild side, see historicist.com

    I'm sticking to the Principia.
    --
    Logic is not Divine.
  4. Newton as a false prophet? by dacarr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is declared numerous times throughout the new testament that nobody knows when the world ends. A little ironic then that he was a devout believer.

    --
    This sig no verb.