Newton and Religion

Everyone knows Newton is one of the most outstanding scientists of all time who discovered laws of motion and calculus (and much more). Amazing are the men (ok, or women) who open up complete new pages in human understandings.

Currently there is a exhibit in Jerusalem about Newton's calculations exhibiting his religious side... He wrote some calculations on the apocalypse based on his interpretations from the Bible! See this link for details.

The problem with the Bible is this: sometimes we take the numbers literally, sometimes we don't. For example, does Jesus really mean forgive people 70x7=490 times or indefinitely? (Matt 18:21-22) I am sure Newton is not too impressed with the Bible's note on π from the temple measurements: 1 Kings 7:23. So the world is really created in 6 days? But if there is no earth going around the sun, what exactly is a "day"? Standard answer is this: Moses isn't trying to write a science book here. All we need to know is God created the world, okay?

I wish I can read Newton's writing and see how he comes up with the year 2060.(Mr. Newton Sir, is that too sloppy writing or is it how everyone writes in 1700s?)

I like science because it allows me to dig into how the world works, objectively. I may find it rather distracting if I see textbook like this: "Gravity is the force that takes an apple to the ground, at the acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. God created the ground so that you can live in and enjoy the apple, so praise ye the Lord".

So let's keep science and religion as completely different subjects.

Religion is beyond what scientific methods to handle, after all, it deals with super-natural. So I won't attempt to scientifically explore into the scripture like Newton, besides, Jesus said you simply won't know when the apocalypse will come.