If you’ve been planning out the next 53 years of your life, you might want to make a mark on the calendar on when you can stop making plans. The details aren’t exactly clear on which date is the ultimate, final, specific omega date, but according to Newton, the world will end no sooner than 2060. He gets this information from the Bible, so you knows it’s accurate.
His famously analytical mind worked out the laws of gravity and unravelled the motion of the planets.
And when it came to predicting the end of the world, Sir Isaac Newton was just as precise.
He believed the Apocalypse would come in 2060 – exactly 1,260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, according to a recently published letter.
Luckily for modern scientists in awe of his achievements, Newton based this figure on religion rather than reasoning.
In a letter from 1704 which has gone on show in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, Newton uses the Bible’s Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse.
The note reveals a deeply spiritual side to a man more usually regarded as a strict rationalist. Newton, known as the founder of modern physics, secured a royal exemption from ordination in the Church of England – something normally expected of academics in his day – so he would not have to follow its teachings.
But he confidently stated in the letter that the Bible proved the world would end in 2060, adding: “It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.”
Of course, he left himself some wiggle room on the date, merely tying 2060 as the earliest date for the end of the world. Also, Newton seems to be ignoring the fact that the Unix operating System knows the world will actually end on January 19th, 2038 at 03:14:08 GMT. This Year 2038 problem makes all other end-of-the-world predictions before or after this time moot.
[tags]End of the world, Newton, The non-Apple Newton, Newton predicts end of world, The Bible as evidence for 2060 end of world prediction[/tags]