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God the Watchmaker

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.

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God the Watchmaker

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  1. God the Watchmaker The Mechanical Philosophy

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.)

  11. 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!

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