I'm not saying what Newton's motivations were or what he believed in, but it is regarded that his discoveries launched the Age of Enlightenment.
Of course, Newton wasn't in a vacuum, but he continued on the works of Kepler and Copernicus. And also, there was that Glorious Revolution in England which made it safer for freethinkers since it was no longer consumed with religious infighting.
Of course, Newton wasn't in a vacuum, but he continued on the works of Kepler and Copernicus. And also, there was that Glorious Revolution in England which made it safer for freethinkers since it was no longer consumed with religious infighting.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"