In the 17th century, new and innovative ideas about the world and the existing existence had covered the thoughts and ideas of philosophers and received special attention and attention from the religious and scientific societies of that time. One of the greatest new theories was Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity.
Isaac Newton in 1642. He was born the same year Galileo died. His operation and discovery was actually a complement and continuation of Galileo’s operation; In such a way that Galileo discovered the “pendulum” theory in 1604 AD. It opened the way for a theory that believes that: “It is possible to interpret the apparent affairs of nature by relating some to others without the need for the intervention of an external force.”
In fact, Galileo’s discovery was the seed of the “naturalism” religion and the “mechanic” theory, which later became very popular and caused a stir. The church opposed this view and actually fought against it and condemned its followers. The church believed that things in their essence do not have the power of any action, but it is the divine attention that makes them circulate and move.
Although this theory of the church was apparently reasonable and accepted by religious communities, the church had not reached a stage of vision and horizon between the relationship of actions to Allah Almighty in terms of being their true subject, and their relationship to means in terms of being direct tools. To do them, distinguish them. Rather, the anger and anger of the church on every emerging thing had prevented it from balancing and dealing softly.
Likewise, the owners of the new ideas were also hidden behind inattention and recklessness and as a result, they completely denied the effect of divine care and attention and related all matters to their causes and believed that anything that is considered to be the cause of its stewardship is not necessary. to assume the divine intervention and influence of the Lord.
When Newton presented the theory of gravity and agreed with the famous and general laws of mathematics, he subdued the intellect and thought of the educated groups. The enemies of religion also considered it a powerful weapon and named it “Newton’s Revolution”, and in fact, they felt the growth of a huge victory; Because now with this extraordinary law, they could interpret the world and the correctness of the opinions of Copernicus, Galileo and Bruno were also confirmed.
Also, this theory rejected the weak and baseless reasons of the church from before. For this reason, the church turned to anger, hatred, and strictness, and its men attacked Newton, who believed in the existence of God Almighty, and believed that his theory led to the denial of the existence of God Almighty; Because he denies the divine attention and care of the world, although later it was proved that the church was right in this claim and the naturalists denied the Almighty God, but the church went wrong in terms of its position and stance towards this theory. This error in the position caused this invalid result.
There is no doubt that Newton’s theory was one of the greatest scientific theories in terms of influencing the lives of Europeans, and it laid the foundation of Western materialistic thinking, and the “rational” religion and the religion of naturalism achieved success through this theory. Also, atheistic religions and “revelation denying” religions were somehow influenced by this scientific theory.
In general, in the 17th century AD and from the total opinions and Ideas issued by Western thinkers, three important theories can be mentioned:
1- The proof of facts should be based on consideration and perspective, not based on unconfirmed traditions;
2- The military non-animal world is affected and changeable, and all its changes are made based on the laws of nature;
3- The Earth is not the center of existence, and if it has a goal of creation, it has never been that goal for humans, and objectivism is not a correct and scientific way of thinking at all.
If the 17th century was the century of the uprising against the Church, it was also the golden century of the Inquisition, and the scientists of the new sciences were subjected to all kinds of tortures and hardships. Long lists of forbidden and forbidden books were distributed, which were found in anyone’s possession, were brought to the courts of inquiry and were subjected to punishment.
The church opposed any attempt of modernism, even though it was useful and good; In such a way that the head of one of the German cities was excommunicated; Because he had invented the illuminating gas (gasoline material), but the church had accused him of changing the divine providence, because God created the night as night and the day as day, and he created it with this invention. He wants to change this thing.
In fact, it can be said that the ideas of Western scientists and philosophers in the 17th century, which caused an attack on religion, was a kind of unjustified and non-targeted reaction, whose goal was freedom from the slavery of the church and salvation from the yoke of its reins, without the end and purpose of this Have a lot of attention.
The great contribution to the spread of these ideas and the elimination of religious principles among the society also comes back to the effects of the results of Newton’s theory. His theory paved the way for both the French industrial revolution and Darwin’s theory. The works and results of his theory were many and we will discuss it in the next topic.
