Comment by Nelson on December 25, 2011 at 2:12pm

Trouble is, he was born on Dec 25 under the Julian calendar we no longer use. He was born on January 4th 1643 according to our Gregorian calendar.

It's a fun thing to do, to celebrate his contributions to science and to human knowledge, but, ironically, in the end, while not as wrong as Jesus being born on Dec 25, the idea that Newton was born on Dec 25 is wrong as well.

Comment by Greg Gorey on December 25, 2011 at 2:28pm

Not only that but Newton was an occultist who did astrology. 

Comment by Nelson on December 25, 2011 at 2:35pm

I believe he was also fond of kicking puppies and punching old ladies. :)

Comment by Dubravko J. on December 25, 2011 at 2:54pm

Nelson, that is true. It was proposed that the ten-day period between the two dates (gregorian and julian) be called "10 Days of Newton", and be a holiday season. I might go with that :D

Greg, lots of the intellectuals of that time used to be alchemists, occultist, astrologers and the kind. I guess it was a trend amongst scholars then.

Comment by Albert Bakker on December 25, 2011 at 2:59pm

Like alchemy, astrology in a historical context (history of science context) must also be understood as such. It is also much more interesting to try to understand why people - who weren't stupid - practicing it, thought that way.

Comment by Dubravko J. on December 25, 2011 at 3:02pm

Well, it was, in a way, more scientific than most of the practices. It consisted of experiments, observations, philosophy of 'inner workings of nature'... I guess it was interesting, to say the least, to more learned people.

Comment by Greg Gorey on December 25, 2011 at 10:51pm

Albert, 

I know, I am a historian of the origins of the scientific revolution:P.

Comment by Albert Bakker on December 26, 2011 at 4:06am

Great stuff, I envy you. I am a garbage man.

Comment by Scott A. Hunt on December 26, 2011 at 8:03am

I believe he was also fond of kicking puppies and punching old ladies. :)

Who isn't?

 

Comment by Ron V on December 26, 2011 at 1:33pm

In his work on gravity, didn't Newton propose the Flying Spaghetti Monster (but all the documents were burned by the Catholic Church)- and doesn't the FSM ultimately lead to string theory as a contemporary elaboration of noodly appendages?

 

Comment

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page