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Re: Devil's Advocate, small footnote.

Dewey,

I said this once, and someone who seemed to know what he was talking about
corrected me, saying that Newton was a "Unarian", not a "Unitarian". I
know pretty much what a Unitarian is, and found the reference to "Unarian"
in one biography of Newton, but have not dug into the doctrinal
differences between the two.

-- Donald

I know that what is now claimed by Unitarians has had several names and I'm
not in a position to know all the names and distinctions, but what I do
understand is that Newton apparently decided that he did not believe in the
interpretation known as the trinity, which is a cornerstone of most faiths
calling themselves "Christian". Hence, the term is not strictly applicable
to Newton. Instead I believe that he decided that God should be considered
superior to all. This is at least in part what Unitarianism is about as I
understand it having been a member for a time of that denomination, hence
my use of the term. Westfall's book, Never at rest, talks some about this,
but I do not remember exactly what term he may have used.

Unarian sounds like it expresses the essence of what I understand about
Newton's view.

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/SN318 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@varney.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938

"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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