Chapter 97 Contemporary Newton

After eating a piece of orange, Bi Wanqing began to talk.

"First of all, you have to be clear. Even in the contemporary world, not every country advocates atheism like our country, let alone the era when Newton was born."

"In the West in the 17th century, religion was the orthodox idea. In an environment where Anglicanism was the state religion of England at that time, Newton was in a social environment full of Christianity, that is, theism, from birth to growth."

"Well..." Wu Bin nodded thoughtfully.

In fact, the several biographies he read about Newton did emphasize that Newton had always been a devout Christian. But this was not the focus of Wu Bin's biography, so he ignored it.

Seeing Wu Bin nod, Bi Wanqing continued.

"In fact, 80% of Newton's writings during his life were theological works, with a total word count of more than 1.4 million. Just as when he was studying at Cambridge University, he often said, 'There is no doubt that the world we see, among which The forms are so colorful, the movements so intricate, that it is nothing but the free will of God, who directs and governs all things. Quotes like this.”

"Teacher, what do you mean, what Newton studied all his life was actually theology, and physics was just incidental?"

"Well..." After listening to Wu Bin's words, Bi Wanqing lowered his head and thought for a while: "To be precise, it should be that Newton, with his extremely high IQ, was determined to use his own wisdom to find out the traces left by God in designing the universe, and even He cracked the code of the entire universe and wrote a lot of jaw-dropping works such as "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", "Optics", "Laws of Nature" and so on."

"So physics... was once used to find God?" I have to say that this surprised Wu Bin, who is very materialistic.

"Yes, that's why his epitaph says the laws of nature are hidden in the darkness, so God said: Let Newton be born, and then everything will suddenly become clear."

"It turns out that there is a religious element in this sentence." Wu Bin also suddenly realized.

After smiling kindly, Bi Wanqing suddenly became more interesting and said with a smile: "Speaking of the issue of religion, there is actually another story. You must know the calculus battle between Leibniz and Newton. Bar."

"Yeah." Wu Bin nodded and threw a piece of orange into his mouth.

"But in fact, Newton hated Leibniz's 'theism' and 'theodicy' more than calculus. Of course, Leibniz also looked down on Newton's 'mechanical cosmology'."

"Oh, it's just that horological view of the universe, right?" Wu Bin suddenly remembered this passage mentioned in the biography.

"Yeah." Bi Wanqing nodded.

In that era of the 17th century, rain was a gift from God, snow was also a gift from God, earthquakes were God's wrath, and thunder was also God's wrath.

In general, the purpose of many scientists at that time was to find out God's temper, so that it would be possible to make him happier, less angry, lucky, and even get some rewards.

But the talented Newton was of course different from those ordinary coquettish bitch scientists. He firmly believed that God was such a dick, so how could he interfere in the operation of the small earth without any problem?

Therefore, Newton firmly believed that God must have designed a perfect operating mechanism for the universe, and then gave the universe "a first driving force" to make it run.

To put it in plain language, the universe is like a clock, and God is the clockmaker. After the clockmaker completes the assembly, he winds up the clock, and then the clock will run by itself without the clockmaker's intervention. "

This is Newton's "mechanical cosmology", which can be said to be one of the most popular, cutting-edge, and most brilliant cosmology in the 17th century.

However, this kind of cutting-edge thinking basically represents fashion, and usually in that era, fashionable things have to be criticized.

Naturally, Newton did not escape this rule. At that time, graduate students at Cambridge University had to be officially appointed as a priest by the Anglican Church. Newton's "mechanical cosmology" was obviously a heretical idea. At worst, he could burn you to death. How could it be possible to appoint him as a pastor, so he was required to publicly retract such remarks.

But who was Newton? The kind that God is the greatest and I am the second, you want him to compromise? nonexistent!

So he easily discovered the loophole in the regulations. You only said that you wanted to become an Anglican priest, but you didn't give a time limit for the appointment, so I will delay it indefinitely!

After making his decision, Newton began his happy career of procrastinating his studies. He did not become an official priest until he graduated from graduate school.

When he was later appointed as Lucasian Teaching Professor, the situation was completely different. This old man wrote a letter directly to the king, saying that it was OK to be a professor, but not a priest. You can either exempt me from the priesthood. Or you can figure it out yourself.

Charles II immediately settled the matter after reading it. After all, Newton's social influence was already very large at that time.

In the final analysis, Newton was so at odds with the Anglican Church on this matter just because he looked down on the other party. Are you scumbags worthy of searching for God with me? Damn you!

"Pfft." Wu Bin laughed as he thought about it.

"What are you laughing at?" Bi Wanqing looked at Wu Bin strangely and asked.

"It's really interesting to think of the various operations of this god-man." Wu Bin laughed a few times, then suddenly turned his head and asked Bi Wanqing: "Teacher, do you think it is possible for me to become a contemporary Newton?"

"Contemporary Newton? If you can prove string theory or dark matter, maybe you can." Bi Wanqing did not treat this sentence as a joke, but answered him rationally.

String theory, dark matter, and physics are the two ultimate bosses. Countless scientists have spent their lives working on them, but in the end they all came to nothing.

This is also the most embarrassing part of the physics field now. String theory has been discovered since 1930, but there has been little development so far, which means that the physics field has not developed much so far. It is in urgent need of a figure like Newton or Einstein to come out and lead it. Leading everyone to rush into the next new field of physics.

"String theory, dark matter, teacher, do you think we are on the wrong path?"

"Hahahaha." Bi Wanqing burst out laughing after hearing this, "You are definitely not the only one who has doubted this, but if you can really explore a new path, then you will definitely be the contemporary Newton."

"But... you should first think about how to get a ranking in the national competition." Bi Wanqing said to Wu Bin after laughing.

"Too……"

After speaking, Wu Bin threw the last orange segment into his mouth.

‘System, will I ever lead humanity into the next new realm one day? ’

"Sorry, this question is no longer in scope."

"Oh, system."

I was too tired yesterday, so I will make up for it with four updates today.