March 28, 2023
Continuing with the theme of the last Essay, “The Web of Life,” all the wisdom traditions throughout history have been based on the recognition of an underlying unity, a connectedness in the universe.
The revolutionary ideas of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Kepler, Newton, and others in the 16th and 17th centuries ushered in a new era of thought, and the scientific revolution took off on a rapid and dramatic ascent. Importantly, though, all these key figures who set this ascent in motion continued to believe there was an overall unity in the universe and that a Divine Order provided the basis for that unity. Even the least religious figure among them, Francis Bacon, had this to say:
“A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”
Among the leading lights of this revolution, some were quite religious, including the most celebrated of all, Isaac Newton. Nor did their scientific ideas interfere with the belief in an orderly, unified universe. In fact, the idea that there was an order and connectedness underpinned all that they did — their shared mission was to understand it.