Newton set 2060 for end of world

The Daily Telegraph ^ | February 22, 2003 | Jonathan Petre

[MadIvan]

Sir Isaac Newton, Britain's greatest scientist, predicted the date of the end of the world - and it is only 57 years away.

His theories about Armageddon have been unearthed by academics from little-known handwritten manuscripts in a library in Jerusalem.

The thousands of pages show Newton's attempts to decode the Bible, which he believed contained God's secret laws for the universe.

Newton, who was also a theologian and alchemist, predicted that the Second Coming of Christ would follow plagues and war and would precede a 1,000-year reign by the saints on earth - of which he would be one.

The most definitive date he set for the apocalypse, which he scribbled on a scrap of paper, was 2060.

Newton's fascination with the end of the world, which has been researched by a Canadian academic, Stephen Snobelen, is to be explored in a documentary, Newton: The Dark Heretic, on BBC2 next Saturday.

"What has been coming out over the past 10 years is what an apocalyptic thinker Newton was," Malcolm Neaum, the producer, said.

"He spent something like 50 years and wrote 4,500 pages trying to predict when the end of the world was coming. But until now it was not known that he ever wrote down a final figure. He was very reluctant to do so."

Thousands of Newton's papers, which had lain in a trunk in the house of the Earl of Portsmouth for 250 years, were sold by Sotheby's in the late 1930s.

John Maynard Keynes, the economist, bought many of the texts on alchemy and theology. But much of the material went to an eccentric collector, Abraham Yahuda, and was stored in the Hebrew National Library. It was among these documents that the date was found.

[blackbart.223]

"So, you're saying that The Matrix has me? Damn. I knew I should've stayed in bed this morning..."

How do you know you there in the first place?

[RoughDobermann]

How do YOU know that your not riding some damn atom under the fingernail of some damn giant! Dude... Getting very heavy...

[scott7278]

Everyone needs to send me a donation so that I can get the word out. Hee, hee, hee.

[scott7278]

It'll just give us a major headache as we topple over. :)

[blackbart.223]

"How do YOU know that your not riding some damn atom under the fingernail of some damn giant!"

That's the problem. I don't.

[scott7278]

"My prediction is that the world will end on precisely 2061-06-23 17:23:44.9922. I can't guarantee the accuracy of this prediction."

You're a few milliseconds off.

[mercy]

Thanks for that. As a photographer as well as a christian I found it very inspiring.

[strela]

What do Newton (or anyone else for that matter) actually mean when they say "the end of the world?" If the end of mankind is the meaning here, that still doesn't mean that the world actually "ends." There'll still be cockroaches, bacteria, and spammers walking the earth even if every human being on the planet is wiped out. Actually, anything short of a Star Wars Death Star-like total destruction of the planet itself would not qualify as "the end of the world." The Earth is a bloody great ball of nickel-iron, and that much mass simply isn't going to disappear like beer flatulence in a tornado.

[A CA Guy]

Can't be, the rapture hasn't even happened yet!

[rwfromkansas]

oh boy, now we are getting some of that rapture fantasy stuff.

I am waiting for 2012; it will be interesting to see if the Mayans were wrong about that one since they actually predicted their own downfall.

[DugwayDuke]

More importantly, when are you sending the rifle. At my age, one can be too patient.

[ovrtaxt]

Do any of you, especially the Catholics, know about the Irish Catholic monk who prophecied accurately the succession of Popes until the last days? I think he said there would be one more after John Paul II, then a false 'Judas' type. Anyone have the info on this?

[Non-Sequitur]

Malachy O'Morgain

[ET(end tyranny)]

If only those had been Tesla's lost notes.

Ain't that the truth!

[ET(end tyranny)]

Thanks for the link, interesting stuff.

[RobFromGa]

MadIvan,
can you add me to your bump list?
Freegards,
RobFromGa

[Quix]

A

*YEAR*

is NOT

a *DAY & HOUR*

One could even speculate one could Biblically know the SEASON and still be kosher.

But I think Newton is too late in his timing.