Who had a Bigger influence on the world we live in today: Jesus or Isaac Newton?

Question

I suspect what Jesus brought to the world has had a strong effect on culture and politics and would have influenced culture and politics, whereas Newton basically started the industrial revolution, introduced calculus and shaped our understanding of the physical laws of nature.

If it were not for Jesus we would not have Christianity. If it were not for Newton we would not have cities with sky scrapers, computers, technology, population increase.

I'M NOT ASKING WHO WAS "BETTER." All I want to know is your opinion on who you think has left a bigger fingerprint on shaping the way our world operates and looks today.

Answer 1

Christ had more influence considering that Sir Issac Newton wrote about Judaeo-Christian prophecy, whose decipherment was essential, he thought, to the understanding of God. His book on the subject, which was reprinted well into the Victorian Age, represented lifelong study. Its message was that Christianity went astray in the 4th century AD, when the first Council of Nicaea propounded erroneous doctrines of the nature of Christ. The full extent of Newton's unorthodoxy was recognized only in the present century: but although a critic of accepted Trinitarian dogmas and the Council of Nicaea, he possessed a deep religious sense, venerated the Bible and accepted its account of creation. In late editions of his scientific works he expressed a strong sense of God's providential role in nature.

Christ also is responsible for millions of missionaries, millions of people who have sacrificed in the name of Christ and the influence of Christianity helped build this country. If your don't believe me look at some of the monuments in DC who have the ten commandments, the phrase in God we trust, as well as many picutures of Moses.

Answer 2

I think Jesus did.  He taught men and women how to live, while Newton, a brilliant scientist, just taught how to understand nature.

Answer 3

Socially, Jesus.

But Jesus didn't help make planes fly, erect skyscrapers, create spaceships, or dictate what is physically possible in the universe. Newtonian physics is a measurable phenomenon that EVERYBODY experiences, not just believers.

That I'm sitting here, right now, is something that Newton helped explain. That I'm not flung off into space by the spin of the planet has not been explained by Jesus.

Jesus probably has had a bigger conscious impact on people's lives, but what Newton helped explain and what others have built upon his knowledge impacts everybody whether they know it or not.

Then again, Newton didn't invent physics and someone else would have figured it out... so, I'm stumped.

The answer is probably Jesus all across the board and, as an atheist, it pains me to say it. I'd like to say Newton - I wish the answer WERE Newton - but right now, I don't think it is. I'll think about that some more. Good question, good question!

By the way, is this for an academic paper?

Answer 4

Newton spent a great deal of time and effort trying to justify science with the Bible, so I would say Newton's answer to this question would probably be Jesus.

He was a clergyman you know, as were most Cambridge scholars of the time.

Answer 5

Jesus. And it's got nothing to do with faith.

Jesus (Christianity) gave birth to the Western Civilization, along with Rome and the Greeks. No Western Civ, no Newton.

Some Chinese or Indian or Arab guy would have wondered about the apple sooner or later.

Answer 6

I think BOUTH HAD GRETTER IMPACT ON THIS WORLD..........JESUS (pbuh) GOD FOR CHRISTIANITY  

                PROPHET FOR MUSLIME....

HE IS RESPETED BY MORE 3 BILLION PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD  

MORE THAN 3 BILLION NOW WHO JESUS (pbuh) IS



SIR.ISAAC NETWON ........WHO CHANGED THE WORLD  WITH THEORY  

WHAT WE ARE NOW IS BECAUSE OF NETWON

ONLY EDUCATED PEOPLE NOW ABOUT NETWON

JESUS(pbuh) HAS GREATER IMPACT ON THIS WORLD COMPAIR TO NEWTON

Answer 7

Jesus.

I think you're seeing too much in Newton. Although important to science, had he not lived, someone else would have discovered everything he did. He just got there first.

Without N, we would still have "sky scrapers, etc...."

Without Jesus, we would not have anyone else.

Answer 8

Definitely Jesus.

His followers have been causing havoc for centuries