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Really, the guy who was president of a club whose motto is “take no one’s word for it” would be fine with just like, taking someone’s word for it?



If that "someone" was the Bible, yes. Apart from his occult work (which like most Western magic was done in a heretical Christian context) he published numerous works on Biblical literalism and prophecy. That Newton considered his work primarily an expression of his religious views isn't exactly a secret.

You made the mistake of reaching too far back in time, searching for an example of someone who should have been aghast at the premise of applying faith to science, and found someone for whom they were one and the same. Although he did reject a lot of the orthodox views of the church, he certainly didn't reject religion outright for its lack of verifiability.


You’ve taken the discussion into a discussion about religion and not just about “natural philosophy”, which is fine, but not what anyone is talking about with “believe in science”.

If we want to talk about religion and taking no one’s word for it you’ve already started us in this direction by pointing out his rejection of church orthodoxy, which is basically the extreme end of Protestant practice.

If you believe that God wrote the Bible and that the church is made up of corrupt men and that only your personal understanding of the word of God is the path towards the True, well, you’re completely at odds with the epistemology of the Catholic Church with regards to religion and very much primed to take the same approach of a personal relationship with God and his word to a personal relationship with natural philosophy.




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