[barmar]

For those of us who prefer science to religion, December 25 is also Isaac Newton's birthday. Today is the 370's anniversary of his birth.

Ironically, Newton did believe in God, but most scholars believe he didn't believe in the Christian Trinity. http://en.wikipedia....Religious_views

[mr1303]

Shame I couldn't +1 this post. Happy Newtonmass

[kenberg]

From the cited Wik article:

Quote

But ... he never made a public declaration of his private faith—which the orthodox would have deemed extremely radical. He hid his faith so well that scholars are still unravelling his personal beliefs.

Good move, Isaac baby. I always knew you were smart.

[USViking]

Another irony is that Newton was an alchemist!

He appears to have spent about 1/3 1/3 1/3 of the height of his intellectually productive life
on real math & science, on theology, and on alchemy, leaving 1000s of pages MS in the latter two.

Then in the 1690s he was appointed to leadership of the national mint where he managed a recoinage
and anticounterfeiting activity, on some occasions literally going undercover in person as a detective
(several suspects of his investigations went to the gallows).

Getting back to the alchemy, it is a real shame Newton failed to apply his unique abilities to
the real science of chemistry, which was just finding itself through the work of Boyle and others.

[barmar]

Yeah, if he hadn't been so superstitious, he might have accomplished something with his life.

[USViking]

If he hadn't been so superstitious, he would have accomplished even more with his life, and there was much that might have been accomplished.

For example, Newton's contemporary van Leeuwenhoek turned the magnifying apparatus inward, toward the very small, and created microbiology in the process. If Newton, who also ground his own lenses, had done the same, and applied his greater intellect to what was revealed, who knows, perhaps the Germ Theory of Disease would have been developed far in advance of when it actually was, with countless more life prolonged as a result.

[PeterAlan]

England was still on the Julian calendar at the time of Newton's birth, when there was a 10 day difference from the Gregorian. So arguably today's the day to celebrate.