isaac newton is regarded as nothing more
or less than one of the finest
scientific minds in human history his
pioneering work in physics including the
three laws of motion and his
comprehension of the awesome force of
gravity laid the foundation for
scientists from albert einstein to neil
degrasse tyson this is called gravity
so the fact that he predicted the end of
the world might be cause for some alarm
of course you wouldn't expect someone
like newton to get involved with
prophecies but while he was first and
foremost a scientific powerhouse a
learned man of newton's caliber was
deeply immersed in other fields too
notably he wrote at length on matters of
religion as reported by the newton
project he meticulously studied the
bible writing in-depth priestesses on
subjects such as the history of
christianity and the nature of theology
as well as the gods worshiped by the
ancient greeks romans and egyptians and
of particular interest to a ravenous and
probing mind like his was the meaning of
the bible's various prophecies
such as those in the book of revelation
and the book of daniel for centuries
believers had tried to decipher its
weird messages which gave newton a
fitting challenge could he use his
scientific methods to make sense of it
all according to the express mysterious
writings of newtons were discovered in
1969 in the home of britain's earl of
portsmouth a family distantly related to
newton
this treasure trove of assorted newton
scribblings contained one particularly
alarming little doozy newton had in fact
calculated when the world would end
how did he do this well in this
particular letter written in 1704 he
claimed to have determined the year the
world would end by studying the book of
daniel according to newton quote the
ruin of the wicked nations the end of
weeping and of all troubles will take
place in the year 2060. or at least it
wouldn't happen before then as he
critically added that the world quote
may end later but i see no reason for
its ending sooner ironically newton said
that he was making his prediction about
when the world would end to try and put
a stop to all the other random people
making their own predictions about when
the world would end needless to say that
didn't work in fact other people would
actually use the same passages from the
book of daniel to come up with their own
doomsday prophecies the king james bible
version of the passage reads swear by
him that liveth forever that it shall be
for a time times and a half and when he
shall have accomplished to scatter the
power of the holy people all these
things shall be finished this bit about
a time two times and half a time is
repeated in other biblical texts
including the book of revelation newton
was part of a school of thinking that
interpreted biblical prophecies through
a historical lens these historicists
typically translate the phrase to mean a
set time period namely 1260 years a
figure that lines up with other
prophecies which mention the number
1260. the big question that has plagued
all soothsayers like newton though is
when the beginning of that 1260 period
was or will be newton decided that the
year 800 a.d would make sense as it was
the year the holy roman empire was
founded by charlemagne using that as a
start date we get an end date of 2060.
pretty simple right
sure assuming newton was correct however
lots of religious groups and leaders
have interpreted the same prophecy and
the same way over centuries only they've
chosen other beginning points that have
seemingly been proven wrong by the world
not ending other potential end dates
have come and gone 1572 1798 1866 and
2016.
despite that each of these
interpretations still have their
adherence which means that newton was
wise in covering himself by saying the
date 2060 might not mark the end of the
world but simply the beginning of the
end of the world and since there's no
way of knowing how long it will take for
the world to end there's really no way
to say whether his prediction or any of
the others is actually wrong making a
prediction that can't be proven wrong
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