Freedom of Science

Newton was a crank and a recluse and a religious bigot who spent much of his time dwelling in a self-generated fog of superstition and crankery . . . says Christopher Hitchins.¹ I guess Newton still had enough quality time left to orchestrate one of the greatest upheavals in European history. Newton was able to generate enough academic fog to confuse the Peripatetic Doctors of Philosophy to topple Aristotle when they weren’t looking. When the Peripatetic doctors emerged from the Newtonian fog Aristotle was gone and Newton was their new scholastic master. Newton ordered them to stop writing commentary on Aristotle and start working on establishing the Newtonian mechanics as the new law of the land. Physicists still try. What an achievement for a crank and a recluse. Try doing the same to Newton today and you will understand the scope of Newton’s achievement. Einstein tried. All he could do was to carve a nich realm for his theory that must reduce to Newtonism. And do you think Newton would forgive such an impingement on his authority? As his revenge for Einstein’s transgression Newton planted his unit of the occult force into Einstein’s equations. In General Relativity there is no occult force in principle but there is Newton’s unit of the occult force. This is how invincible the Newtonian religion is today.

1. From Not Even Wrong [↩]

ShareThis