Objection · Case 09 · Atheism
Newton’s letters to Bentley are a textbook case of God of the gaps. He invoked God to explain the stability of the solar system, which Laplace later explained without God.
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
Fair, and it should be acknowledged. Newton’s specific inference from planetary stability was a gap argument that failed. The letter is cited only to show that Newton saw his science and his theism as connected, not to endorse his particular inference. Said plainly, it is an honest example of what a gaps argument looks like and why the next exhibit warns against them.
About this exhibit
This objection is to Isaac Newton, letter to Richard Bentley, 1692.
Leading figures of the scientific revolution, among them Kepler, Boyle, and Newton, integrated their faith and their science. Newton wrote to the clergyman Richard Bentley that when he composed the…
Under Claim 06: The history of science and Christianity is not a story of constant warfare, and many founders of modern science were themselves believers.