Newtonian Mechanics
Newton, Roger G. From Clockwork to Crapshoot a history of physics.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Smith, Peter Godfrey. Theory and Reality: an Introduction to the
Philosophy of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Baggott, Jim. The Quantum Story a history in 40 moments. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2010.
Prior to the
time of Newton, the argument from design had an intuitive appeal because it was
grounded in the idea that the number of higher-order complexes (producing
higher-order activities such as self-motion, eyesight, intelligence, etc.)
which could be produced by the interaction of simpler constituents is extremely
remote by comparison to the number of non-productive combinations of those
simpler constituents. From the vantage point of both physics and probability
theory, this is not an erroneous idea. The world we live in is a complex place,
and we must expect any theory that describes it accurately to share that
complexity. The mathematical study of the motion of everyday
objects and the forces that affect them is called classical mechanics.
Classical mechanics is often called Newtonian mechanics because nearly the
entire study builds on the work of Isaac Newton[1]. The
main works of Newton was based on the Newtonian Mechanics laws and principles
at the core of classical mechanics include the following:
Newton's First
Law of Motion: A body at
rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless it
is acted upon by an external force.
Newton's Second
Law of Motion: The net force
acting on an object is equal to the mass of that object times its acceleration.
Newton's Third
Law of Motion: For every
action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Newton's Law of
Universal Gravitation: The pull of
gravity between two objects will be proportional to the masses of the objects
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers
of mass.
Law of
Conservation of Energy: Energy cannot
be created nor destroyed, and instead changes from one form to another; for
example, mechanical energy turning into heat energy.
Law of
Conservation of Momentum: In the absence
of external forces such as friction, when objects collide, the total momentum
before the collision is the same as the total momentum after the collision.
Bernoulli's
Principle: Within a continuous streamline of
fluid flow, a fluid's hydrostatic pressure will balance in contrast to its
speed and elevation.
Newtonian
Mechanics and faith
God’s word is
therefore the foundation for all of creation, and provides a foundation in
particular for those regularities that are termed scientific law. Science in
all its parts depends on the belief in regularities, and on confidence that
laws exist. In so doing, it is depending on the word of God and on the
regularities that God specifies in his speech.4 In particular, the real laws of
physics are the word of God. Human physicists give us an approximation to that
word.
This connection
between science and the word of God has at least two fruits. First, by linking
God to the question of scientific law, it raises the question as to whether
differences in people’s views of God can result in differences in scientific
opinion.
According to
the Second Law, acceleration is proportional to the force impressed. The
constant of proportionality is the mass of the object. F = ma; F is the force;
m is the mass, and a is the acceleration. The force F is mass times
acceleration, making the force proportional both to the mass and to the
acceleration.
Simple
proportionality is built in. And, when we relate our discoveries in the
macrocosm to the tabernacle as a microcosm, we can affirm that the beauty of the
simple proportions in the tabernacle is related to the beauty of the simple
proportions in the macrocosm. Both are the product of beautiful design on
the part of God.[2]
The glory of God is manifested in physics in any number of ways, in its
beauties, in its harmonies, in its impressive exactitude and power. But it is
also manifested specifically in reflections of the Trinitarian character of
God.
Newtonian mechanism reinforced the strategy of reductionism, by
which an object's behavior is explained solely in terms of the behavior of its
parts. Embracing determinism and reductionism, Newtonian physicists and other
scientists came to disdain explanations that appealed to purpose, or telos.
Instead, they sought to provide explanations solely in terms of efficient
causes. This mechanistic outlook continues to oppose religious perspectives
that speak of the meaningfulness and purposefulness of the world.
In response to the rise of mechanistic physics, Western
philosophers and theologians of the Enlightenment focused much of their effort
on protecting human freedom. One of the first to deal with this issue was René
Descartes (1596–1650), who divided reality into two realms: the material world
of mechanical necessity (res extensa) and the mental world of human free
will (res cogitans). Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) subsequently advanced
a more nuanced dualism, distinguishing between the determinism of the perceived
world (the realm of phenomena ) and the freedom of the world in and for itself
(the realm of noumena ). Following Descartes and Kant, many Protestant
theologians abandoned the physical world and retreated into the
"inner" world of the human spirit. Friedrich Schleiermacher
(1768–1834) was one of the first to thrust this agenda, removing religion from
the realm of knowledge and relocating it in the realm of feeling. By the end of
the nineteenth century, Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889) could write,
"theology has to do, not with natural objects, but with states and
movements of man's spiritual life." In its first interactions with modern
physics, Christian thought had managed to defend human freedom from physical
determinism only by severing human existence from its physical foundation.
Classical physics also posits a serious challenge to notions of
God's ongoing activity in the world. In response to determinism, Christian
thinkers developed three markedly different theories of divine action. Firstly, the universe does not have the causal
powers within itself necessary to bring about its present configuration. Newton
espoused an early version of this approach, claiming that the planets' orbits
were inherently unstable and thus in need of occasional divine adjustment.
Locating God's activity as Newton did in events allegedly lying beyond the ken
of scientific explanation has been called the God of the gaps approach. Such
explanations rely problematically on scientific ignorance and must retreat
whenever science fills an explanatory gap. Others pursued a more compelling
version of this approach, often called interventionism, in which God breaks the
laws of nature when acting in a specific event. God, on this view, creates gaps
in an otherwise deterministic world to make "room" for particular
divine acts. Deists rejected this theory because they felt that the most honest
and reasonable response to determinism was to relinquish the God who continues
to act, in favor of a God who brings the world into existence and then desists.
(Newton's account of inertial, or self-sustaining, motion helped to discredit
the idea that the world depends upon God's ongoing activity for its continued
existence.) Finally, nineteenth-century Protestant liberals eliminated from
their theory of divine action all objectively special acts and miracles,
speaking only of God's one great uniform act: the entire history of creation.
On the liberal account, one might perceive God acting specially in some
particular physical event, but this would be merely a matter of one's own
subjective perception.
The resolution of this tension will no doubt lead to further
opportunities for conversation with religious perspectives. The human quest for
meaning and transcendence cannot be reduced to physical explanation, but it can
be enriched by the deeper understanding of the world's natural processes that
physics provides. Newton had conceived of space as God's means of experiencing
the world and of time as an absolute structure with an endless past and future,
as well as a uniformly moving present.
[1]Isaac Newton
(1642-1727) becomes the most influential scientist of the 17th century, his
ideas becoming the foundation of modern physics. Sir Isaac Newton's three laws
of motion describe the motion of massive bodies and how they interact became
the basis for modern physics.
[2]
https://frame-poythress.org/redeeming-physics-biblical-and-theological-resources-for-a-god-centered-approach/
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