Newton and MN

Ted Davis (TDavis@mcis.messiah.edu)
Thu, 02 Apr 1998 09:59:21 -0500

Brian Harper is interested in using Newton to illustrate MN. To some
extent, of course, Newton and every other scientist in every period uses MN:
the goal of science, after all, is to understand nature and use it to our
advantage, which cannot occur if we constantly invoke God's absolute power
as the sole explanation of a phenomenon.

However, I doubt Newton is a good choice. He believed in an ever-active God
whose activity was not confined to the category of the "natural". We could
still understand this exceptional activity, but in theological terms, not
necessarily in scientific terms.

I have discussed issues related to these in an article listed in on my
webpage, which contains a long abstract. Readers are invited to see the
details there:

http://www.messiah.edu/hpages/facstaff/tdavis/home.htm

Ted Davis