The Coming Convergence
Isaac is reading a biography of Isaac Newton (while I sit at the computer) and, incredibly, laughing aloud while doing so. Here is one of the moments that inspired the guffaws, indicating that wacky fundamentalist types are not only a present-day scourge:
As it evolved into a new orthodoxy, Newtonianism became a target. … It inspired satires, some deliberate and some ingenuously respectful. One Newtonian convert, the vicar of Gillingham Major, wrote a treatise [c. 1720] called Theologiae Christinae Principia Mathematica[*], calculating that the probability of counter-evidence to the gospels dimished with time and would reach zero in the year 3144.
[James Gleick, Isaac Newton (Random House, New York, 2003) pp. 178–179.]
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*I.e., The Mathematical Principles of Christian Theology.
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on Thursday, 11 August 2005 at 15.00
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I went out and got this book last night after reading this post (Isaac Newton, not Theologiae Christinae Principia Mathematica, which I couldn't find). Speaking of Latin (nice lead in), please translate: Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire. :)
on Thursday, 11 August 2005 at 15.38
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I'm pleased to hear it: that you bought the book might strengthen my credentials as a book reviewer! I hope it satisfies expectations.
"Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire" = "It is no disgrace to pass on to better things", or "There is no shame in passing on to better things".
If you want to know why I have been using it as a motto, and what it might have to do with Christian propaganda, you can look at the post where I originally mentioned it.