Isaacnewtonstheology .files.wordpress.com /2013/06/….pdf

The myth of Newton's clockwork universe is a persistent and pervasive myth in the history of science, which portrays the universe as a machine or clockwork mechanism created by God but no longer intervened in or governed by Him. This myth is recognized as such by most informed historians of science, but not by the wider public. The myth has several components, including the idea that the universe follows deterministic laws, that Newton was a deist or protodeist, and that Newton's physics excluded God from the universe. However, this myth is not supported by Newton's actual worldview, as evident from his published works and massive manuscript corpus. Newton's theology and providentialist physics are rooted in a medieval conception of the cosmos as an assembly of nested and regularly moving crystalline spheres, with God as both creator and sustainer of the clockwork. The clockwork analogy was used by medieval monks, astronomers, and literary figures to describe the universe, and was later employed by leading advocates of the mechanical philosophy, including Marin Mersenne, Pierre Gassendi, and René Descartes. Newton's closest followers, including Johannes Kepler and Robert Boyle, also used the clockwork analogy to describe the universe, but with a emphasis on God's ongoing involvement in the cosmos. The myth of the clockwork universe was perpetuated by scholars in the first half of the 20th century, but has been largely debunked by recent research and the release of Newton's manuscripts.