#principia mathematica

[faithfulsheepdog]

“Far from belief in God hindering science, it was the motor that drove it. Isaac Newton, when he discovered the law of gravitation, did not make the common mistake of saying: ‘now I have a law of gravity, I don’t need God.’ Instead, he wrote Principia Mathematica, the most famous book in the history of science, expressing the hope that it would persuade the thinking man to believe in a Creator.”

— John Lennox

[wisdomfish]

Newton poses a problem for Dawkins.

Newton is possibly the greatest scientist of all time, and was a strong believer in God. So how does Dawkins deal with Newton? He tries to neutralize Isaac Newton by claiming he was a fake, motivated by money. This is how he does it – the passage is in Dawkins' book The God Delusion. Dawkins starts with a quote from Bertrand Russell who said: "Intellectually eminent men disbelieve the Christian religion, but hide the fact, because they are afraid of losing their income." The next sentence is: "Newton was religious." The insinuation is that Newton was faking belief in God to get money. This is totally false.

If Newton was faking it, he really overdid it. He wrote to his friend Richard Bentley: "When I wrote my treatise [Principia Mathematica], I had an eye upon such principles as might work for the belief of a deity, and nothing can rejoice me more, than to find it useful for that purpose." He read the Bible every day; attacked and ridiculed atheists and wrote letters encouraging opponents of atheism. Newton wrote:

Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things, and knows all that is or can be done. This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being.

And this: "It is the perfection of God's works, that they are all done with the greatest simplicity. He is the God of order and not of confusion." Galileo said: "The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go." Galileo, Newton and Einstein all believed in God, therefore Dawkins' claim that science and religion are in conflict is nonsense.

~ John Marsh 

[ancientsstudies]

Isaac Newton's handwritten manuscript.

[rlyehtaxidermist]

everyone memes on bertrand russell taking hundreds of pages to prove 1+1=2 but i think he deserves more credit for referring to it as “occasionally useful”

[zoologica42]

Me: how TF am I supposed to read Principia Mathematica? like, half of this book is written in symbolic gibberish?

Bertrand Russell: Fear not young one, for I have written a version of the text so simple even a child straight from primary school could read it *hands me Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy*

Me: I still can't fukin read this 

[numb3rth30ry]

379 pages later...

[my18thcenturysource]

Did you know that you can read the original edition published in 1760 of Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in full and for free?

Well, you can, and here’s the link.

Lee este post en español aquí.

[johngalt]

I would LOVE to know the identity of the previous owner of my copy of Principia Mathematica Vol. 1 by Isaac Newton. I got it at a used bookstore and they didn't write their name in it anywhere, but their notes are hysterical.