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#41
09-28-2005, 06:05 AM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
This is admittedly unresearched, but off the top of my head, I call your bluff.
Newton did not live to see the work of folks like (but not limited to) Hume, or Kant, or Nietzche, or ungrateful rebels like Thomas Paine. A great amount of secular arguments against theism are derived from these sources. 
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#42
09-28-2005, 06:20 AM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
[ QUOTE ]
This is admittedly unresearched, but off the top of my head, I call your bluff. Newton did not live to see the work of folks like (but not limited to) Hume, or Kant, or Nietzche, or ungrateful rebels like Thomas Paine. A great amount of secular arguments against theism are derived from these sources. [/ QUOTE ] The one "red herring" perhaps is that since Newton (and Leibniz) "discovered" Calculus, he had an analytical brilliant mind (genius) and an eye for logic. Yet Newton was a devout Christian, not one merely in name, he believed the Bible was the inspired word of God and read from it daily. Newton must of saw some logic in Christianity far beyond what most 'emotional believers' and skeptics alike see in the religion, either that or he was 'brainwashed' which I don't think he was, nor apparently does Sklansky.
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#43
09-28-2005, 06:36 AM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
This really isn't the point. You argued that Newton had been exposed to the common skeptical arguments. Now, rather than addressing the fact that you're probably wrong on this count, you're moving the goalposts.
That said, Newton may have been brilliant, but every man is at a disadvantage to those who follow him, in that there is less of a foundation to work with. Newton was a genius, but he didn't come up with Relativity or Quantum Mechanics, or hell, Evolution. He also didn't come up with the skeptical arguments that would come in later generations.
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#44
09-28-2005, 07:08 AM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
[ QUOTE ]
You argued that Newton had been exposed to the common skeptical arguments. [/ QUOTE ] Where did I say this? [ QUOTE ] Now, rather than addressing the fact that you're probably wrong on this count, you're moving the goalposts. [/ QUOTE ] Explain. [ QUOTE ] That said, Newton may have been brilliant, but every man is at a disadvantage to those who follow him, in that there is less of a foundation to work with. Newton was a genius, but he didn't come up with Relativity or Quantum Mechanics, or hell, Evolution. He also didn't come up with the skeptical arguments that would come in later generations. [/ QUOTE ] I've already acknowledged the fact that if Newton was alive today he'd either have lost his faith or been a deeper believer, it's 50/50 IMHO.
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#45
09-28-2005, 07:18 AM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
Wow, reason #23252b why you one should stay away from messageboards at 4am. I had you completely confused with seigfriedandroy.
In my own defense, both names start with 's', end with 'y', and contain 15 characters. Since those 3 traits are the most important things for word recognition in the brain, I feel excused. Have you ever seen the article about this? The one where, in the process of describing the phenomenon, every word has the interior letters jumbled, yet it remains effortlessly readable. It's pretty amusing. That all said, uh......uh......
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#46
09-28-2005, 07:21 AM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
[ QUOTE ]
Wow, reason #23252b why you one should stay away from messageboards at 4am. I had you completely confused with seigfriedandroy. In my own defense, both names start with 's', end with 'y', and contain 15 characters. Since those 3 traits are the most important things for word recognition in the brain, I feel excused. Have you ever seen the article about this? The one where, in the process of describing the phenomenon, every word has the interior letters jumbled, yet it remains effortlessly readable. It's pretty amusing. That all said, uh......uh...... [/ QUOTE ] No problem. And yes I have seen that research regarding jumbled middle letters and found it very interesting.
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#47
09-28-2005, 08:03 AM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] So what. Bobby Fischer supposedely has a higher IQ than Einstein did and he believes in all sorts of wacky and inane things. [/ QUOTE ] Just responding to the suggestion that genius and christian were mutually exclusive. Newton was both. chez [/ QUOTE ] contemporary genius. i highly doubt today that if newton was alive today that he would still accept christianity. [/ QUOTE ] Agreed, no reason to think Newton wouldn't have had very different views today. Anyone who wants to claim that Newton must have been right will presumably accept he was right about the bible. Plenty of information is available as he wrote so much and was an important man in his own time. [ QUOTE ] Affiliation: Anglican, Heterodox Newton was born into the Anglican church and publicly conformed to it. At about thirty, he convinced himself that Trinitarianism was a fraud and that Arianism was the true form of primitive Christianity. Newton held these views, very privately, until the end of his life. On his death bed he refused to receive the sacrament of the Anglican church. [/ QUOTE ] chez
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#48
09-30-2005, 10:26 PM
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Re: That one dang genius who believes?
[ QUOTE ]
If Newton was alive now and was STILL a religious Christian, I would significantly alter my personal assessment about whether I thought Christianity is true. [/ QUOTE ] It's highly likely he was no more a Christian than Blair or Bush. No guy that intelligent and connected would be a Christian. Although I'm sure that would be his public image.
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