Text: Pages 177 and 178

This time, the apple was not a religious symbol but a symbol that science could now discover the mysteries of the natural world that God had created. Newton wondered why the falling apple didn’t go sideways or upwards, but constantly went to the center. The reason was because the earth draws the apple to the center, the apple draws the earth, and the earth draws the apple. Every object in the universe is attracted to every other object directly proportional to the object. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The universe operates in a machine-like fashion, with God as the great machine maker.

Newton believed that the senses were deceptive. One does not “feel” gravitation; one does not “feel” the earth move. It is mathematics that provides objectivity and true knowledge, linking the mechanics of Galileo with the planetary motion of Kepler.