If one wants to know about Creationism they should turn to the Bible, and religious studies, not expect to see it with science topics.

While the propositions from Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, were already out there, they were largely seen by the reigning religious fundamentalists as mere arguments. What Newton did was to tie them all together with a pretty, mathematical bow. This bow was a very tough knot to argue against, as it could move freely throughout a new concept called reason.

Einstein opened a new door, giving an incomprehensible peek at that new thing called quantum mechanics. He didn’t get it, either, but he knew it was out there. The chalk board did not lie. The gauntlet had been thrown, and Hawking snatched it up.

That’s really all I got, ER.

BTW:
It turns out that Galileo had no problem at all with Pope Paul V, and vice versa. The two had even grown up together, I believe as schoolmates, and upon his ascension to the Vatican, Galileo presented Pope Paul V with a telescope and introduced him to the moons of Jupiter. The Pope enjoyed using the device quite often, watching the grand mysteries of his creator moving through the heavens.

His real problems were with the Inquisition, which held sway over the Pope, resulting in Galileo’s eventual house arrest.

Also:
An excellent book to check out is Dava Sobel’s “Galileo’s Daughter.” By all means, get it. It’s a wonderful compilation of letters from Sister Maria Celeste, his eldest daughter. I believe her former name was — Virginia? If you have the ability to control your dream-state, this is a nice, comfortable book to nod off to in bed.

And, finally:
My unification theory:

“BECAUSE”

I’d show you my work, but there’s not enough room on the internet for it. All you can do is sit back and watch it all happen.
;^)

Absolutely amazing. All of it.

Cheers.

Copernicus (1473-1543) Showed us WHAT was going on.
Kepler (1571-1630) Described planetary motions mathematically
Galileo (1564-1642) Provided telescopic evidence and publicity
Newton (1642-1727) Showed how gravity could yield Kepler’s Law

Kepler showed exactly what was happening, mathematically describing how elliptical orbits swept out equal areas in equal times, and how the periods of orbits were mathematically related to their dimensions in space. These were all geometrical relationships that could be determined by observation. Kepler showed us HOW things worked.

Newton came up with the the concept of gravitational attraction and how matter attracts other matter across space. He described these forces mathematically and precisely, and showed that once those forces were demonstrated to exist, Kepler’s Laws had to follow. The universe had no choice but to behave like Kepler said once gravity was shown to work. He was able to derive the kinematic behavior of the solar system (motions) from its dynamic properties (forces). Newton showed us WHY things worked.

This distinction is important, because it reminds us of what happened later with Darwin and evolution. Darwin introduced the concept of natural selection, the empirical description of how the biological universe created adaptation. Mendel worked out how it worked, genetics. The discovery of DNA provided the mechanism of why it had to work. This time, the Catholic church, having learned its lesson in the 17th century, accepted the new knowledge, making whatever adjustments it needed in its theology to accept the new science. Fundamental Protestants in rural North America and Muslim Fundamentalists in the MidEast, have been unable to make that leap.

This idea, that once the fundamental law has been shown to work the observed behavior in nature has no choice but to follow, is extremely profound. It shows god doesn’t have to continuously monitor and manage the universe. Once he sets up the Law, the world can pretty much run itself without any further interference from him. Science raises no objection to whether or not god designed the universe. It simply states that he designed it so well it no longer needs him for it to operate properly. For all we know, god died at the moment of the Big Bang and from now on, we’re on our own.

But we had one more philosophical lesson to learn, it was from Einstein, at the beginning of the 20th century. He was able to come up with an entirely new and different set of laws that gave the same results as Newton’s. He even tied up some of the loose ends Newton left behind, and explained some situations where Newton’s laws did not apply. Einstein’s Relativity wasn’t just a few minor corrections to Newton’s physics, it was an entirely new way of describing nature, and a new interpretation of matter, energy, space and time. It gave the same results as Newton where Newton had already succeeded, but neatly disposed of some problems Newton had unable to solve, or even anticipate. The idea that two totally different philosophical ways of looking at nature are equally successful at solving the vast majority of most practical engineering problems (like predicting eclipses, navigating ships, or calculating the load on a beam) make us wonder just what do we mean by Truth.

But even more profound than that, now that we know Relativity replaces Classical mechanics, we are left with the though that perhaps Relativity might not be the last word either, in fact, there may be no last word at all. After all, doesn’t Quantum physics work fine in describing phenomena where neither Newton or Einstein are useful? Newtonian physics seems to be a subset of Einstein’s but Quantum Theory seems to be totally different from either. There may be other theories, perhaps an infinite number of them. And perhaps there is no Theory of Everything that will tie up all the loose ends and unify everything in one Grand Unification.

Science has always proceeded from the assumption that the Universe can be understood and described by human reason. But that is an assumption. The Universe may not be explainable or understandable. The human mind may simply be incapable of understanding it in its totality.

No reason to panic here, after all, our intelligence can guide us to solve practical problems in morality, ethics, esthetics and philosophy. Psychology, politics, economics, history and many other forms of human activity are open to investigation without precise guidelines comparable to the Laws of Physics. But we must divest ourselves of the arrogance of ideology, that there is an ultimate Truth. If the physicists and the priests can’t provide us with absolute certainty, why should any one else?

To me, Jody, the “attack” seemed to be against the hopelessness of theological fanaticism. Our universe manages to “operate on schedule,” but merely as explained in Newton’s eventual laws of motion, which he he divined in his youth, but almost failed to even record for posterity, eventually scribbled out in the last decade of his long life.

And in the end, box office proceeds always = squat.