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To: bvw
The answer? Without their deep religious drives and incorporation of that love of G-d and his works into their own work, they would have been long forgotten.

Nonsense. The value of Newton's contributions to mathematics and science would have been recognized regardless of how much "love of god" he allegedly put into them.

95 posted on 02/13/2005 7:02:09 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: Ichneumon
Well, a stronger argument is made by the fact that the whole package included massive amounts of spiritual speculation, so that the appearance of pure math and hard physics without such is in doubt.

You seem to see the impediment to scientific progress as theism. I do not. I see the impediments are ossifying orthodoxy and overly interial bureacracy and established process, whether theistic or atheistic.

And today the one of the most reactive of impediences to delightful scientific progress is the evolutionist orthodoxy -- I think that is obvious.

102 posted on 02/13/2005 7:15:30 AM PST by bvw
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To: Ichneumon
The answer? Without their deep religious drives and incorporation of that love of G-d and his works into their own work, they would have been long forgotten. Nonsense. The value of Newton's contributions to mathematics and science would have been recognized regardless of how much "love of god" he allegedly put into them.

I think what they *meant* was that without the love of God they might not have been driven to explore nature.

Your mileage may vary, for a number of reasons--please recall that intellectual pride, curiosity, phobia, etc. also motivate people.

Oh, yes, there is a great deal more money and time being thrown at science nowadays than there was in the 1400's to 1600's : and indeed, we have the advantage (lacking to the scientific pioneers) that we take the concept and practice of empiricism for granted (no pun on grant money...)

Cheers!

419 posted on 02/14/2005 5:31:54 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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