The Parable of the Solar System Model

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This apocryphal story relates to Isaac Newton's supposed belief in design. Newton, a man of his time, engaged with friends in frequent discussions on the subject of God and design. An atheist friend disputed the evidence of design in reality.

The story goes that Sir Isaac then built a clockwork model of the Solar System, including all the planets and moons that were known at the time. The moons revolved around the planets and they all in turn revolved around the Sun, while each individual orb turned on its axis.

"How were you able to construct such an ingenious device?" asked the friend.

"I just tossed the pieces at random into a corner, and they accidentally assembled themselves into this model," Newton replied.

"That's absurdly impossible," protested the other.

"A lot less absurd," countered Sir Isaac, "than your belief that such was the origin of the real Solar System, of which this toy is but a much simplified model."

Though widely cited, there is no evidence that the incident ever happened. Newton did attribute the organization of the solar system to the "counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being," in his "The General Scholium," which he added to Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1713). This essay also includes an embedded attack on the doctrine of the Trinity, and an appeal for an inductive approach in both natural philosophy and religion. It shows Newton's perspective on the integration of natural philosophy and theology.^[1]