Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night;
God said ‘Let Newton be” and all was light.
Alexander Pope
Me, I like Christmas. ‘Tis the perfect humanist holiday, celebrating the birth of a child as an opening into the possibility of miracle. Very easy to see why in old Massachusetts when the Puritans outlawed the holiday for the pagan mess it is, in the early nineteenth century it would be the emergent Unitarians who would revive it.
We’ll be celebrating the day in the conventional American way, gathering with family and for the next several hours trying to avoid revisiting old slights, pointing out other’s absurd political positions, or sharing disappointment in each other’s religious views. Sitting on judgments of the younger member’s lifestyle choices are optional. This year Jan & I are in charge of producing a meal that will accommodate the sensibilities of the majority must have a slice of dead animal at every meal and the vegans who are offended at hearing about cheese. What could possibly go wrong? You know, American Christmas.
However, as we live into the holiday, it is too bad it is so overwhelming that we miss other things that are worthy of note for this day.
For instance, there is the stalwart minority who remind us that Issac Newton was born on this day in 1642. Talk about fulfilling the abundant promise to be found at the moment of a child’s birth. Newton would become one of the greatest scientists in our history. As the Wikipedia article notes “Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus.”
Me, I also like how he bridged the pre-scientific and scientific worlds. In addition to his work in mathematics, optics, mechanics, and gravitation, he was a working alchemist, seeking the philosopher’s stone. And, it doesn’t hurt that he was a serious biblical scholar who read himself into a theological unitarian. Thinking of Newton makes me smile.
Some within the rationalist community like to call Newton’s birthday, today, the 25th of December, as Newtonmas. They send cards emblazoned with “Reason’s Greetings!” and exchange gifts of apples. Wikipedia speculates “The name Newtonmas can be attributed to The Skeptics Society, which needed an alternative name for its Christmas party. Another name for this holiday is Gravmas (also spelt Gravmass or Grav-mass) which is an abbreviation of “gravitational mass” due to Newton’s Theory of Gravitation.
This low key, and generally tongue in cheek holiday continues as a subtext to the day. For example last year the wonderful contemporary science popularizer, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted “On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy birthday Isaac Newton…”
Okay, time to start cooking.
And, me, I’m wishing the blessings of the season on all of us.
All of ’em…
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