Newton is a more than suitable subject to point to from the Monkey Mind. Newton’s list of accomplishments is astonishingly long ranging from the first coherent description of gravitation to the renowned three laws of motion to establishing the basics of classical mechanics which would dominate scientific thinking for three centuries and still holds for the corner of the universe we occupy, and with Leibniz is credited with the discovery or would it be invention of the calculus. The list continues…
Perhaps of course, of particular interest to me was that Newton was a unitarian, or somewhere in that vicinity; he kept these particular views secret during his lifetime.
Then I went and opened my blog and what did I find but a note from my friend Dr David pointing me to Olivia Judson’s suggestion Newton’s birthday as a suitable excuse for the secular minded to celebrate the season. A famous wit as well as an evolutionary biologist, I suspect Judson’s modest proposal was made with her tongue firmly placed against a convenient cheek.
Truthfully, I find the season cluttered enough, thank you. In my life it all starts with a celebration of the Buddha’s enlightenment, the celebration of Jesus’ birth, the observation of the Maccabeean candles, occasionally with a dash of Kwanza; all for me grounded in that old time religion, the Solstice.
I surely don’t mind a tip of the hat to a premier scientist, particularly one who most likely was in fact a Socinian. But, I think it’s going to be little more than that tip of the hat.
Enough, after all, is enough…
Still, for the moment, in the midst of all that is going on, a brief pause to think of an amazing human mind, and the wonders of a life of the mind, as well as the heart…
And, so, yes!
Happy Birthday, Isaac!
And, at no extra charge some nerd rap celebrating the man…
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