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God seems to be at the root of most of the world's current conflicts. Not your god, obviously, since everyone thinks his god is the ultimate justification for the evil that he does and all other gods are false. Dawkins is in many ways a lesser intellect than Newton, but his statement "the only thing all religions have in common is that each one teaches you to despise all the others" sums up this reprehensible human invention.
One thing I wondered, since Newton was a smart person and must of known what happened to Galileo for going against the Catholic Church before him, was all Newton's religious conviction just a facade to protect against any similar fate?
Quote from: Beer w/StrawOne thing I wondered, since Newton was a smart person and must of known what happened to Galileo for going against the Catholic Church before him, was all Newton's religious conviction just a facade to protect against any similar fate?That's a great question. I don't know the answer so I just e-mailed a gentleman I know who's a physics historian about this. I'll let you know what I learn.In the meantime I suspect that it might have to do with the fact that Newton lived in England and was subject to the Church of England whereas Galileo was subject to the Roman Catholic Church.
I think Newton was genuine in his beliefs, mainly because he didn't hold mainstream views and would have been considered a heretic. I think he did hide these views to some extent.
He was into all sorts of ideas including neumerology - the spectrum is continuous so you could divide it into a range of colours, he think he chose 7 as a magic number.
He didn't believe in Trinity etc.
That's quite true. Wikipedia confirms what you just said. Is that where you learned it?
I think that the number 7 is special for some reason. I.e. I think most people think of it as their favorite number or their lucky number if they have such views. I always liked the number 7 but I think that's because channel 7 was the one that came through the clearest on our TV when I was a kid.