The world will end in 2060 - I.Newton

February 23, 2003 6:26 PM

Just Party like it's 2060 According to some researchers, this will be the year sir Issac Newton predicted the world will come to an end, based on his Biblical interpretations. Like we didn't have enough depressing news already.
posted by betobeto (19 comments total)

How do you "discover gravity"? Isn't that like how Christopher Columbus "discovered America" despite the people already living here.

Based on his biblical belief that the Bible contained the secrets of God. But of course, its a book a belief system, and not a guarantee that its accurate. This is the kind of thing we should all just go, "uh... uh huh. ok. sure."
posted by benjh at 6:37 PM on February 23, 2003

Bullshit.
posted by teradome at 6:43 PM on February 23, 2003

But he was also a theologian and alchemist, who predicted that the Second Coming of Christ would follow plagues and war and would precede a 1,000-year reign by the saints on earth - of which he would be one.

how convenient.

who knew he was such a crank in his spare time?
posted by donkeyschlong at 6:46 PM on February 23, 2003

I'll be 93. That's fine with me.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:50 PM on February 23, 2003

We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

When did the CRTC get to these guys? Or is it an Anti-Canadian-Terrorism kinda thing?
posted by shepd at 6:54 PM on February 23, 2003

Well I'll be ninety by then, and based on my personal habits and genetics I wont last that long, so, whatever Ike...
posted by jonmc at 6:55 PM on February 23, 2003

>who knew he was such a crank in his spare time?

Actually, a lot of proto-scientists were major cranks. Pythogoras was a cult-leader and his people went around killing people who dared claim that the square root of two was an irrational number. Ironically, Kant's attempt to explain race through science was positively racist. There are probably a lot better examples out there, but its been a while since HST194: The history of science.

Its only been a short while since western science has separated itself from philosophy and religion. You can't be too critical of these guys. They were definitely ahead of their time, just not that ahead. I wonder what future generations will be surprised to learn about, say, Einstein. "He believed in that old time god stuff? Weird." Heck, people today are surprised to learn about Einstein's problems with quantum physics.
posted by skallas at 7:04 PM on February 23, 2003

This ain't really news. It's long been known that he predicted the second coming of Christ would occur in 1948.
posted by ptermit at 7:05 PM on February 23, 2003

Like we didn't have enough depressing news already.

So why did you bring it here? Besides, we all know that the world will end in 2012.
posted by Witty at 7:06 PM on February 23, 2003

Or 2038
posted by skallas at 7:20 PM on February 23, 2003

The aliens observing us from the moon are ready and willing to fling an asteroid our way - especially given our recent lack of interest in world cooperation. But, relax! - It's all part of a bigger scheme, planned in advance.
posted by troutfishing at 7:42 PM on February 23, 2003

I'd be interested if Einstein made a revised prediction ...
posted by murmur at 8:20 PM on February 23, 2003

Actually, a lot of proto-scientists were major cranks.

Not just proto-scientists. Lots of people have discussed the connections between modern big-business driven science and christian fundamentalism in the US. See, for example, David Noble's The Religion of Technology [a positive review here and a somewhat more critical review here]. There's this neato interview with Marshall Berman in which he has some interesting thoughts about the modernism of fundamentalism, and just the other day I was reading in Mike Davis' City of Quartz about what a total nutbar Robert Millikan was.
posted by slipperywhenwet at 8:29 PM on February 23, 2003

The first generation of Christians thought that Christ would return in their lifetimes. Seems like they had the most likely claim of anyone. How did that one turn out again?
posted by Hildago at 8:42 PM on February 23, 2003

> who knew he was such a crank in his spare time?

When you read about Newton's childhood and his relationship with his mother the surprise isn't that he turned into a genius / nutjob but that he didn't become an axe-wielding maniac terrorising the home counties in a blood stained wig.
posted by vbfg at 12:00 AM on February 24, 2003

Shepd: I've always wondered what Showtime had to hide from us Canadians. My guess is that they're slowly tearing down the World Wide Web, to make a much more efficient America Wide Web.
posted by Newbornstranger at 12:02 AM on February 24, 2003

About 80-90 per cent of Newton's writing concerned topics which we would now consider "cranky", or least that's what it said in a book I read about him.
posted by johnny novak at 5:30 AM on February 24, 2003

How did that one turn out again?

Hmm. Assuming the Empire never ended, and a perfect spurious interpolation has been substituted for profane time, I'd say we have yet to see.

Excuse me, I have an information-rich pink beam to feed.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:11 AM on February 24, 2003

Hmm. Assuming the Empire never ended, and a perfect spurious interpolation has been substituted for profane time, I'd say we have yet to see.

Excuse me, I have an information-rich pink beam to feed.

I have no idea what any of that means.
posted by Hildago at 3:30 PM on February 28, 2003