A portrait of Newton in 1702 by Godfrey Kneller. Newton also spent four years in the 1670s preparing a work on alchemy, the erroneous notion that base metals can be turned into gold.
Credit: Wikipedia
JERUSALEM: Renowned British scientist Sir Isaac Newton, is known as the father of modern physics and astronomy, but he also came up with the odd crackpot theory, a 1704 letter suggests.
In the letter, which went on show at a Jerusalem exhibition yesterday, he used biblical scriptures to predict the world would end in 2060.
Newton was a famed rationalist, and went as far as securing a royal exemption from ordination in the Church of England - which was normally expected of academics of his day - so he would not have to follow its teachings. Nonetheless, Newton based his prediction on the Bible.
Working from verses in the Book of Daniel, the elaborator of the classical laws of gravity, motion and optics argued that the world would end 1,260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire in western Europe in 800 AD.
Interest in superstitions
The letter, on show at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, in Israel, as part of an exhibition entitled "Newton's Secrets", is part of an array of papers of the British scientist bequeathed to the institution by a wealthy collector of scientific manuscripts.
The university said it was the first time the letter had been put on public show since 1969.
Newton's late 17th century work, at Cambridge University in England, was the foundation stone of modern science until the discovery of relativity and quantum mechanics in the last century.
But it has long been known that the ground-breaking physicist also took a keen interest in superstitions of his day that have long since fallen foul of modern science.
Newton spent four years in the 1670s preparing a work on alchemy, the notion that base metals can be turned into gold.
As for whether it's likely Newton's prediction will come true; we'll have to wait another 53 years to find out.
I believe he was referring
I believe he was referring to the world as we know it. Which isn't too far fetched.
i agree with the previous
i agree with the previous comment. at least thats what will happen if we dont start finding oil alternatives now!
at least that's what will
at least that's what will happen if we don't start finding oil alternatives now!
Best we start investing in good quality horse stock now, and get in on the ground floor.
hags are going to destroy the world
I agree. If we keep letting the liberal hags take over, we're doomed!
you mean you're doomed speak
you mean you're doomed speak for yourself
Could agree, it depends
IF newton was right that it is biblical that the world will end at 2060 we have nothing we can do to help it. If it is from God it will happen no matter what.. But anyway it's not worth thinking too much about and worrying about. I fit happens, it happens, if it doesn't it doesn't.. Focus on living for today and I bet it'll work out just fine.. ;)
The Law of Attraction
I believe more in the law of attraction, than I do the end of the world.
Every decade we have a new year, that someone thinks the world will end. In 1999, a lot of people thought the world would end with Y2K.
I knew about Mayan prophecies in the late 1980s. And now as 2012 approaches, quite a few think the world will end and are stockpiling food for Dec 21, 2012.
We are a, species of fear and we breed fear in to our society and consume everything around us, as if there is no tomorrow. This is the problem with people who think the world will end.
There is no after thought of the future of mankind. This has been one of our biggest problems, as a species and something we will have to get past, as the human race WILL live on and eventually move in to space and colonize the solar system and beyond.
The world will not end in 2012, 2060, nor will it any time soon. We will however waste a lot of our natural resources, destroy and inflict pain on each other and as I said at the beginning, the law of attraction is at work.
Like minded people are pooling together . That means that everything good or bad is evolving and growing. So people who believe in the end times are creating their own end time.
It is obvious to me, at least, that with the christian coalition, and other sects growing, with the fighting in Israel against the Palestinians, we are CREATING a global collision course between these factions, that inevitably will lead to a lot of death, but not the end.
Thank You.
This is undoubtably the best poece of writing I've seen so far of the predictions on the end of the world. So many people overreact. I've seen articles on us being sucked up by worm holes, Planet X, 2012 and the Mayan Calender, The earth spontaneously combusting, etc. I believe that we come up with these ideas so that we have something we can rely on. None of the people in the world really know anything about when the world was created or when it will end, for a fact. And, so we come up with ideas in which we can base reality, when the truth of the matter is we no nothing. So, I thank you for writing this logically, and I hope more people will see it. It's not that I don't fear the end of the world. I just think it's silly that we can hear a story that the world MIGHT end and then we automatically believe it must be true when many of these ideas have failed in the past.
The Law of Attraction
I believe that if you are to look at Newton's phrophecy about the apocalypse happening in 2060 in a biblical sense it can be discounted like all other end time predictions. Jesus told his disciples that even he didn't know the date, only the father in heaven knows.
Really 2060 I Think NOT!
When or how the world ends doesnt rely on science.Science is nothing God will tell us when the world will actually end because we will see changes going on,like the water,its blue right???ok so God will give us a sign that the world is going to end,hes going to show us that the water is turning red like blood to punish us for killing ppl in war.I say the world is going to end in 2012 from a meteors.