Transcript God the Watchmaker - Physics at Oregon State University

GOD THE WATCHMAKER
The Mechanical Philosophy
THE MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHY
The universe is an immense and immensely
complicated clockwork or machine.
 The wheels and gears of living organisms were to
be revealed by anatomy and the new microscope.
Organs were mechanical devices.

ULTIMATE REALITY
Below the surface of ordinary matter there were
“atoms” or “corpuscles” in constant motion.
 It was their motion and properties that were
responsible for the properties of substances.
 The billiard-ball universe

PIERRE GASSENDI (1592 – 1655)
Classical atomism was tainted with atheism.
 Gassendi claimed that the particles were finite in
number and created by God. God had endowed
them with their motion.
 The human soul was immortal, not composed of
atoms, and had free will.

GOD THE WATCHMAKER
The existence of a clockwork universe implied the
existence of a divine clockmaker.
 Was this the god you were looking for? Possible
bad consequences:

An absentee god.
 Materialism
 Determinism – so no free will

ATHEISTS!!!
Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)proposed a
corporeal God an a corporeal human soul. Was he
an atheist?
 Theology in the Middle Ages concerned itself with
subtle questions about the Christian God.
 In the 17th century the emphasis shifted to
proving the existence of some kind of god.

THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS
Henry More (1614 – 1687) added to matter an
inherent guiding principle: a non-sentient but
immaterial entity called the “spirit of nature” or
the “plastic principle.”
 Robert Boyle (1627 – 1691) claimed the plastic
principle unnecessary. God could create a word
that could run on its own.

RELIGION AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
What the 17th century called natural philosophy
we would call science.
 The study of natural philosophy was an
inherently spiritual activity. Studying the “book
of nature” was learning about God.

SPOOKS!
If the existence of spiritual beings like ghosts,
demons, or witches could be scientifically
established, it would prove the existence of the
supernatural.
 This would be ammunition against atheists.
 Robert Boyle and other natural philosophers did
extensive research along these lines.

SCIENTISTS AND RELIGION
Most of the great scientists of the 17th century
were profoundly religious men.
 Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687) contains
extended discussion of the attributes of God.
 He calculated the dates of the beginning and end
of the world. (It will end in 2060.)

GOD AND GRAVITY
Gravity operates without intervening particles.
 It is constant and reliable.
 It keeps the solar system stable.
 All this must require some divine intervention.
 These are dangerous arguments!
