END OF THE WORLD: So says Newton!

SLAM: debunk creationism, pseudoscience, and superstitions. Discuss logic and morality.

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Zoink
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END OF THE WORLD: So says Newton!

Post by Zoink »

Funny guy that Newton:
End of the World Is Nigh, Says Long-Dead Scientist

LONDON (Reuters) - Armageddon is just 57 years away, by the calculations of Britain's most famous scientist, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday.

Sir Isaac Newton, the 17th century scientist and theologian, wrote thousands of pages of notes in his attempt to decode the Bible and pin down the date of the apocalypse, said the article.

"But until now it was not known that he ever wrote down a final figure," Malcolm Neaum, who has produced a BBC documentary "Newton: The Dark Heretic," was quoted as saying.

"What has been coming out over the past 10 years is what an apocalyptic thinker Newton was," he added. "He spent something like 50 years and wrote 4,500 pages trying to predict when the end of the world was coming."

The handwritten manuscripts bearing Newton's calculations were discovered by researchers in a library in Jerusalem, following their sale in London to collector Abraham Yahuda in the 1930s.

Newton, who died in 1727, is best known for discovering gravity -- supposedly when an apple fell on his head -- and is credited with being the forefather of modern physics.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st ... ageddon_dc
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Mr Bean
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Post by Mr Bean »

Smells highly of bullshit at the moment, no confirmation? And how where they sold to a Jewish Dealer if no one had any idea of what they where?

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Joe
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Post by Joe »

Hmm, well, it's possible. IIRC, Newton went a little crazy later on in his life, due to mercury poisoning.
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Darth Wong
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Post by Darth Wong »

We must remember that a scientific theory is predicated upon the supporting data, not the credibility of the author. Newton could have gone loony and it wouldn't affect Newtonian physics. Kelvin DID lose it and it doesn't mean the laws of thermodynamics are bunk.
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Gil Hamilton
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Post by Gil Hamilton »

Plus, Newton was a Creationist and Biblical literalist. He may have been good at math and had some keen ideas on physics, but that doesn't make him an authority in other areas or psychic, much to the dismay of some fundementalists.
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Trytostaydead
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Post by Trytostaydead »

Newton was obviously wrong, odds are the world's going to end in about 5 years :twisted:
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Post by Darksider »

Trytostaydead wrote:Newton was obviously wrong, odds are the world's going to end in about 5 years :twisted:
????[EDIT super-long string]?????????

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