Isaac Newton, Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (London, 1733)
For Newton, science and the Bible were not opposed, provided that one understood each correctly. In this study of the apocalyptic book of Daniel, Newton affirmed that God’s dominion in history is shown by fulfilled prophecy, and that God will soon put an end to idolatry and restore authentic monotheism.
“Blinded by the brilliance of the laws of motion, the laws of optics, the calculus, the concept of universal gravitation, the rigorous experimentation, the methodological success, we have seldom wondered whether the discovery of the laws of nature was all Newton had in mind. We have often missed the religious nature of his quest and taken the stunningly successful by-products for his primary goal. But Newton wished to look through nature to see God, and it was not false modesty when in old age he said he had been only like a boy at the seashore picking up now and again a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than usual while the great ocean of Truth lay all undiscovered before him…. Newton’s goal was a unified system of God and nature.”
Betty Jo Dobbs, Janus Faces of Genius (1991)
