Christian History Home > Issue 76 > Newton vs. Newton
Newton vs. Newton
Mark Galli | posted 10/01/2002 12:00AM
Atheism is so much the worse that it is not buried in books," worried Richard Bentley in an early Boyle lecture, "but is gotten [into life], that taverns and coffee-houses, nay Westminster-hall and the very churches, are full of it." This invidious "atheism" so troubled Robert Boyle that his will provided for a lectureship "for proving the Christian Religion, against notorious infidels, viz. Atheists, Theists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans. …"
By "atheists" Boyle and his theological allies meant a growing attitude, not merely the formal denial of the existence of God. They fought the claims that this diffuse atheism spawned: that the foundation of the world is material, that there is no immortality of the soul, that the Bible is not divinely inspired, that there is no absolute morality, and so forth.
The title of Bentley's opening lectures in 1692—The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism Demonstrated from The Advantage and Pleasure of a Religious Life, the Faculties of Human Souls, The ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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