Sydney Smith 
Denysha Taylor 
It is interesting to apply Isaac Newton’s theology to the C-F-R-R model. In Newton’s eyes, God abandons the world after he forms it, leaving humans to be and do what they will. He experiments, studies and observes the universe, discovering laws and principles that explain how the universe works. So instead of humans interacting with God through faith, prayer, supplication, etc., Newton believes that it is through understanding the universe objectively that one understands God. In a way, I think this is Newton’s form of redemption. Humans are created and then left to their own devices, alone in a mysterious world. It is through studying the world that humans become closer to God. In our text book, one Principle of Newtonian Science is this: “Natural laws are absolute, but at any given time our understanding is imperfect. Therefore, scientists often need to settle for probabilities rather than certainty. This is because of human ignorance, not because of any variance in natural laws (p. 107).” Newton acknowledges that humans are not perfect, he sees that humans will never be able to fully understand everything. Humans are limited. This might sound similar to how the Church has been claiming the same for years and years, that God works in mysterious ways, that there are so many unknowns in the world, that people should be satisfied living in the dark… However, while Newton is familiar with these limitations, he refuses to accept them. His curiosity is not subdued, and answers ARE found. What a revolution! Maybe the Church thought this was the fall of humans? But you can see now how people begin to look at religion- look at God- differently. How science soars and religion is questioned. In this lies a restoration of knowledge, a restoration of human potential that has been squandered in the past.
Nicole Nelson
7:32 pm, 09.21.13
Caroline,
This was a very interesting take on Newton’s philosophies! On first thought I would probably have put Newton under the Fall category, just because he believes that God almost doesn’t care about humans, so thus humans begin to forget about God and forget about the fact that he gave them life, thus they begin to destroy what he has given them. But after reading your post I definitely see where you’re coming from! I love when you talk about Newton fighting against the limitations of this time period. I think that says a lot about his character, which leads me to believe that he probably does support redemption. Like you said he is unwilling to accept the fact that there is only so much humans can do, instead he pushes people to learn as much as they can. So this may lead to people learning that in order to restore their lives to what God originally created they must make an effort in the redemption process. Great post!
Denysha Taylor
9:44 pm, 09.23.13
Caroline,
I really enjoyed this post! I agree that the idea of human limitations fit very well with Redemption. Also your depiction of the Church imposing those limitations onto humanity was a wonderful and ironic parallel! Newton does indeed break the barrier of limitations in his work.