Example Of Essay On Newton’s Concept Of God

In Newton’s view, God’s present moment is the present moment of absolute time. Since God is not present in a particular place in space, he is omnipresent and hence there is a worldwide moment, which is absolutely present. One implication of Newton’s conception of absolute time is that the order of the parts of time is immutable. He also stated that absolute space and time exist as independent entities in their own right functioning as infinite containers. Newton’s temporal faith provides the basis for absolute simultaneity. His negative view that space is neither a substance nor a property returns a positive conception that space is affection and an emanative effect of God. Newton’s view of nature pointed him to God. He supposed that the irregularities, which do not have an explanation in terms of laws, were due to the direct intervention of God.
Newton’s view of God’s relationship with the world brought him into several conflicts. He asserted that God is both eternal and infinite. God is both omnipotent and omniscient, which refers that God’s duration ranges from eternity to eternity and his presence ranges from infinity to infinity. He rejected the idea that the world was the body of God or a way of thinking about God in the manner of Spinoza. In Newton’s point of view, God creates bodies, but not space. In other words, body depends upon the will of the divine, but space does not depend on God’s will. He denied the concept that God or any other being creates space and supported that God constitutes duration and space. He thought of the infinite space as the divine space in which God perceives his creatures.
Newton held the view of God as an explanatory factor when he made efforts to reconstruct a relevant view of the universe. Newton’s conception of God with his affection thesis indicates that he conceives space as uncaused; however, it does not follow Newton’s general view of affections. It rather follows God’s specific relation to space. On several occasions, Newton emphasized that since God exists necessarily, there is no time at which God fails to exist. He stated that since space exists just in case any other entity exists, space has existed eternally because God has existed eternally. Newton’s view of emanation helps to understand the presence of God. Instead of threatening the uniqueness of God or undermining his infinity in space, Newton expressed and understood that the actual infinity of God is embedding God in an infinite Euclidean space.
Newton’s interpretive method adds to his views of God as neither an appearance nor a phenomenon. Newton’s concept of God had an intimate relation with space. It led to another contested Newtonian idea that space itself is actually infinite and Newton was well aware of the contested nature of his idea. He believed that God occupies space in a way that material objects do not. Space emanates from God, being in the sense that space exists just in case God exists. It satisfies the argument that God is infinite and Newton’s heterodox view that God substantially occupies space. Newton’s depiction of God found in General Scholium describes three ways to explain the relation of God with time. In the first view, God exists super temporally, which means temporal concepts do not apply to the divine existence. In this view, God is above, beyond or outside time.
In the second view, God exists in an unchanging present, an ever-present eternity. Finally, God’s presence is omnitemporal, which means that God’s nature endures through all possible times. Newton found a consonance between the unity of God and the universal force of gravitation. To Newton, God did not sound like an active personal dominion, but a distant designer who is irrelevant to the daily human existence. Newton faced criticism when he suggested that God occasionally adjusts the orbits of the planets as they seem to be running down or getting off course. Newton’s concept of force coupled with his view of absolute time also complicated the question of the relation of an eternal God moving into a world of material bodies. He felt that the passive matter of the world would fall apart without God’s active rule. Newton assumed that if the order of nature appeared to be decaying, God would reconstitute the universe.

References

Janiak, Andrew. Newton. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
McGuire, J. E. "Newton on Place, Time, and God: An Unpublished Source." The British Journal for the History of Science, 2009: 114-129.
Patton, Lydia. "Philosophy, Science, and History." Routledge, 2014: 307-321.
Shults, F. LeRon. Reforming the Doctrine of God. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005.